304
SHE HAS A BODY
could breathe it like morning air when the sun plays with new leaves.
What more magical letter could one imagine with which to write the word of the poem? Hair of air and of light, of silk and of sun! And see how it ties itself
Happily to the other letters which are the mouth and all the face. Hair creates the symbol and draws its boundary
VI
But it is necessary that it float like a jest, that it fall like a laugh on the shoulders. It is barbarous to dress it in architectural forms. But a gold circle or a shell comb may retain it on the forehead, to prevent the interference
Of its light with the light of the eyes, the soft light of the eyes, changing as the sea. I have loved the eyes more than all other corporal manifestations of beauty. The eyes partake of light
And partake of water. They partake of thought and of love. They tell the degree of pressure of the cerebral matter, and how the sacred nerves are strained.
They tell the state of the blood, the ebb of the stream, the sudden storms against dam and valve, or contrarily its peace. The eyes are the manometer of the animal machine.
VII
They are that and that alone. They have only the power to be a sign. In them pass the shadows of the drama. Eyes regard eyes and understand them. Eyes give. Eyes take. Eyes speak.
And their words signify the desire of being or the placidity of their will. The language of the eyes is very clear to lovers, and to those who are not yet and those who never will be lovers. Eyes make speech between them.
Almost to dulling, having to melt like a bit of sugar in the water-glass of death, mine will speak to you still, but they will not take your answer very far away;
Because one takes away nothing, one hurts. Leave me then to regard the eyes which I have discovered, eyes which will survive me, that I may grave there the image that I was in dreaming this.
