Freedom of Love


(Translated from the French by Edouard Rodti)

My wife with the hair of a wood fire
With heat lightning thoughts
And an hourglass waist
My wife with a waist of an otter in the teeth of a tiger
With a tongue of rubbed amber and glass
With a tongue of a doll that opens and closes its eyes
My wife with eyelashes that are strokes of a child's writing
My wife with champagne shoulders
My wife with wrists of matches
My wife with fingers of luck and ace of hearts
With fingers of mown hay
With arms of seafoam
My wife with legs of flares
With the movements of clockwork and despair
My wife with feet of initials
With feet of rings of keys and sparrows drinking
My wife with a neck of barley
My wife with a throat of the valley of gold
With breasts of night
My wife with the back of a bird fleeing straight up
With a back of quicksilver
With a back of light
My wife with hips of a chandelier
My wife with eyes full of tears
My wife with savanna eyes
My wife with eyes of water to be drunk in prison
My wife with eyes of wood always under the axe
My wife with eyes of water--of air, earth, and fire

--Andre Breton