Theophile Gautier: To your parted lips I would go and there would I die

Here’s a beautiful and devastatingly romantic poem “Butterflies” by Theophile Gautier!

Odilon Redon, Five Butterflies, c. 1912

Butterflies

Do you know, oh beauty of beauties,My sacred dancer with jet black eyes,If they could lend me their wings,Do you know where my journey would lie?

Without taking one kiss to the roses,Across valleys and forests I’d fly,To your parted lips I would go,And there, flower of my soul, would I die.