ALICIA.
Ay, maiden breasts!
Would you betray my oath?
CRASSUS.
My will contests
My wishes.
ALICIA.
Wait, and you shall surely see
Part of the secret that ensorcels me.
See all these bosses! It is not
As if a Titan smote himself into the earth,
And was caught into her, made one with her?
CRASSUS.
The scent is fierce and hot
Like a rutting panther's slot.
Yet you are matched with mirth,
Shaking each other like two wrestlers.
ALICIA.
What should stir
Your melancholy but laughter?
CRASSUS.
Look, before us
Light streams, a tremulous chorus.
Oh, it is vague and vacillating!
ALICIA.
Love,
Young love of maidens, is the soul thereof.
And in the midst, behold, O man!
The image of great Pan.
CRASSUS.
I fear him.
ALICIA.
Go and lie there, at his feet.
Lie supine! Lie on that moss-covered root,
While I draw forth the flute
And make a marvellous music.
[She ceases laughing and begins to play.]
CRASSUS.
O I writhe
Beneath the force of lips, of fingers lithe
That touch the delicate stops so delicately.