Faun’s Head

In the leafage, green casket spotted with gold,

In the leafage less than certain and flowery

With splendid flowers that sleeping kisses hold,

Quick and bursting the exquisite embroidery,

A fearful faun shows off his pair of eyes

And gnaws the ruddy flowers with his white teeth.

Tanned and blood-red like an agèd wine,

His lips explode with laughter on the heath.

And when he’s gone—a squirrel departs that way—

His laughter quivers every leaf upon,

And you see a bullfinch scare away

The forest’s golden kiss, thinking on.

Arthur Rimbaud