I am the delicately white daughter of the sea,
It was the mollusk
That gave birth to me.
There in the confines of my dark cradle
I lie peacefully,
Safe from harm.
 
My mother holds me tenderly to her breast;
Faithfully she cares for
And protects me.
I have no desire for air or for light,
I am not imprisoned,
No, I am free.
 
Woe! if from my mother’s arms, forcefully,
Without mercy,
Horribly, one could
Abduct me into the glaring light,
From the blue waves
Into the yoke of slavery!
 
If I were to be on view in the marketplace,
Sold, to be passed
From hand to hand,
Only to the rich, who hardly pay me mind,
Who see me only
As sport and frippery.
 
Finally, almost as a mockery, one might well fasten me
Into a crown
Of thorns.
There, like a tear then from a wounded heart,
In the throes of the pain of separation
I would gleam.