Ii

Roses of June, you the most fair, You with your hearts transpierced by sun; Violent, tranquil roses, with the air Of halted flights of birds upon a bough; Roses of June and July, straight and new-begun, Mouths whose kisses all at once are thrilled With the wind or with it stilled, Caressing with shade and gold the moving green; Roses mutely ardent and sweet willed, Voluptuous roses in your sheaths of moss, You who pass the long summer time Loving each other In this clarity sublime; Fresh, magnificent, vivid--like you, oh roses, Is our multitudinous desire That in lassitude or leaping fire Loves, exalts, and then reposes!