Your form is a flash that leaves the arms empty, your smile is a moment that cannot be seized; you flee, before the thunder of desire echoes from my lips across a chasm—cold as hope—your cruel caress wounds without satisfaction; sets the scars of eternal hunger, and of eternal thirst, and eternal regret. The flicker of your embrace singes, grazes, like the Chimera to whom you devote your unquenchable wishes. Nothing is worth this tormented ecstasy of your rare kisses!
Renée Vivien (1877-1909) (translated by Prontobard 2022)