Monsieur, do you call it opposing your w...

Monsieur, do you call it opposing your wishes

To strip them of the parts that are vulgar

And to try to distill them to the purity

In which perfect love consists of beauty alone?

You couldn’t keep your thoughts of me

Free and clear of the commerce of the senses.

And you had no taste for the sweetest appeal

Of the union of hearts without bodies.

You could only pine with a love that was gross;

With all the appurtenances of the union of matter;

And, to feed the fires ignited in you,

We’d need a marriage, and all that ensues.

Ah! What strange love! And how far the beautiful spirits

Are from burning with these earthly fires!

The senses have no part in all their loves,

And their loving fire wants to marry only their hearts;

It skips all the rest as a shameful thing.

It’s a flame pure and simple, like celestial fire;

The sighs it creates are all chaste,

And there’s no inclination to dirty desires.

Nothing impure is mixed in its conduct;

You love out of love, and nothing else.

The ecstasy is in and of the mind,

And you never even notice that you have a body.

Citation: Moliere, Translated by Jonathan Marks, The Learned Women, Public domain.
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