Cleopatra 

translated from the Spanish of Salvador Díaz Mirón

I saw her amid purple swirls.

              I saw Cleopatra, a young girl

              stretched out upon her back,

              inhaling a scented aphrodisiac

              from a brazier encrusted with pearls.

              As the silky smoke did curl

              around her jeweled body, her hand, bold

              as the paw of a tiger, fired her hair with gold.

              Her feet, white lilies; her ankles bangled

              with opals; her arms entangled

              in turquoise, garnets and diamond darts.

              Her flesh, cool as all the perfumed arts

              of Egypt. Ah! If only I could enter her door,

              I’d offer all my laurels, riches—everything I adore!