About This Project

“And his arm and leg, and thigh and loins,
Polished like oil, undulating like a swan,
passed before my clear-sighted and serene eyes;
And her belly and her breasts, these clusters of my vine,

stepped forward, cuddlier than the Angels of Evil,
To disturb the repose of my soul,
And to disturb her from the crystal rock
Where, calm and solitary, she lay.”

“Calmly I watched, with a certain detachment at first,
as the swanlike arms uncoiled, and then the legs,
the sleek thighs shifting, shiny as oil,
the belly, the breasts – that fruit on my vine –
Clustered, more tempting than wicked cherubim,
to undermine what peace I had achieved,
dislodging my soul from its rock – crystal throne
of contemplation, once so aloof, so serene.”

(Baudelaire – Les bijoux)