The Steps 

                                   By Paul Valery 

Your steps, children of my silence,

Holily, slowly placed,

Towards the bed of my vigilance

Proceed dumb and frozen.

Nobody pure, divine shade,

That they are soft, your steps selected!

Gods!… all the gifts which I guess

Come to me on these naked feet!

If, of your advanced lips,

You prepare to alleviate it,

An inhabitant of my thoughts

The food of a kiss,

Does not hasten this tender act,

To be soft and not to be not?

Because I lived to await you,

And my heart was only your steps