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Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) was an influential French poet who had a decisive effect on European Literature in general and on the so called Decadent Movement. Baudelaire was heavily influenced by the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.From the first edition of his most known volume, "Les fleurs du mal"(1857), six of his poems (considered offensive by censors) were cut, including two of his greatest works "Le Vampire" ( The Vampire) and "Les Mertamorphoses Du Vampire" ( Metamorphoses of the Vampire).The poem will appear only in the 1866 volume.
===Metamorphoses of the Vampire===
Meanwhile,from her red mouth the woman,in husky tones,
Twisting her body like a serpent upon hot stones
And strining her white breasts from their imprisonment
Let fall these words,as potent,as a heavy scent;
"My lips are moist and yielding,and i know the way
To keep the antique demon of remorse at bay
All sorrows die upon my bosom,i can make
Old man laugh happily as children for my sake
For him who sees me naked in my tresses,I
Replace the sun,the moon,and all the stars of the sky!
Believe,learned sir,i am so deeply skilled
That when i wind a lover in my soft arms,and yield
My breast like two ripe fruits for his devouring-both
Shy and voluptuous,insatiable and loath
Upon this bed that groans and sighs luxuriously
Even the impotent angels would be damned for me!"
When the she had drained me of my marrow,and cold
And weak,i turned to give her one more kiss- behold
There at my side was nothing but a hideous
Putrescent thing,all faceless and exuding pus
I closed my eyes and mercifully swooned till day:
And when i looked at morning for that beast of prey
Who seemed to have replenished her arteries from my own,
The wan,disjoined fragments of a skeleton
Wagged up and down in a new posture where she had lain;
Or an old sigh that creaks upon its bracket,right
Mournfully in the wind upon a winter's night.
Charles Baudelaire 1857
Translated by Edna St.Vincent Millay.
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