You’d have me be unspoiled as the dawn,

You’d have me be sea-foam,

You’d have me be mother-of-pearl.

You want me to be a lily

That surpasses all others, untouchable in my chastity.

Giving off only the most delicate of perfumes.

Petals unopened.

 

Not a trickle of moonlight

Should be able to find me.

Not a single daisy be permitted

To call herself my sister.

You’d have me be pure as snow,

You’d have me be white,

You’d have me be unspoiled as the dawn.

 

You that have grabbed

Glass after glass without pause,

Staining your lips

With dark nectars and wines.

You that have gone to banquet

Clothed in nothing but vine leaves,

Leaving your flesh strewn behind you

In your wild Bacchanalia.

You that have run through the shadows

Of the Gardens of Deception,

Red from head to toe,

Racing reckless toward Ruin.

 

You that have just barely managed

To keep your skeleton intact

By means of some miracle

Beyond my comprehension,

You tell me to be white

(God forgive you),

You tell me to be chaste

(God forgive you),

You tell me to be pure!

 

Go, run into the wild;

Make your way to the mountain;

Wash your mouth clean;

Live in the simplest of shelters;

Hold the wet earth

In your hands;

Nourish your body

With bitter roots;

Drink from the stones;

Sleep on the frosted ground;

Restore your tissues

With saltpeter and water;

 

Talk with the birds

And rise with the dawn.

And when the flesh

Has returned to your bones,

And you’ve finally rejoined

Your body to the soul

That you abandoned piecemeal

Tangled in bedsheets,

Then and only then, good man,

Tell me to be white,

Tell me to be pure as snow,

Tell me to be chaste.