My love, do you recall the object which we saw
That fair, sweet, summer morn!
At a turn in the path a foul carcass
On a gravel strewn bed
Its legs raised in the air, like a lustful woman
Burning and dripping with poisons
Displayed in a shameless, nonchalant way
Its belly, swollen with gases
The sun shone down upon that putrescence
As if to roast it to a turn
And to give back a hundredfold to great Nature
The elements she had combined
And the sky was watching that superb cadaver
Blossom like a flower
So frightful was the stench that you believed
You'd faint away upon the grass
The blow-flies were buzzing round that putrid belly
From which came forth black battalions
Of maggots, which oozed out like a heavy liquid
All along those living tatters
All this was descending and rising like a wave
Or poured out with a crackling sound
One would have said the body, swollen with a vague breath
Lived by multiplication
And this world gave forth singular music
Like running water or the wind
Or the grain that winnowers with a rhythmic motion
Shake in their winnowing baskets
The forms disappeared and were no more than a dream
A sketch that slowly falls