The night weighs heavily by the dark banks of the Nile.
Cleopatra, kneeling under the burning stars,
Suddenly pale, dismissing her ladies, who withdraw,
Rends asunder her tunic in a grand, impure gesture,

And erects in a passion upon the high terrace
Her virginal body, swollen with love, like a ripe fruit.
Completely naked, she vibrates! And standing under the deep blue,
She turns herself, the burning serpent, upon the tepid and ravenous wind.

She wishes (her wild eyes shoot like lightning)
That the world take on, this evening, the perfume of her flesh...
O sombre flower of scattered sex in the night air!

And the Sphinx, immobile upon the sands of boredom,
Feels a fire penetrating her stony-silent frame,
And the immense desert shifted beneath her.