Song of Golden Youth + 

Quelle bêtise! O Muse, no longer lappt in sadness let us lie, + 

Bring the jars of old Falernum, bring the roses ere they die! + 

I love laughter, I love kisses, I love Lili, I love love, + 

But these dingy funeral dirges ennuyer us by-and-by; + 

Fellows, disinvoltamente, when the lords of life depart, + 

Lift the wine-cup to your haughty lips, and sing, Goodbye, goodbye! + 

We have laughter on our lips, and in our hearts the laughing spring, + 

Nothing greatly can afflict us, nor our spirits mortify; + 

All the laws and regulations under scornful feet we tread, + 

We laugh loud at all the virtues underneath the shining sky; + 

I have heard, when haughty Tarquin did his horrid deed of sin, + 

That Lucretia’s lily fingers slapp’d his face vivaciously; + 

Though of all my life dear Lili make a gay dégringolade, + 

Yet to my ennuis doth Lili sing an endless lullaby; + 

We are Greeks and we are Tartars, we know all the languages, + 

To the girls of Persia, India, China, we know how to sigh; + 

If the heartless heart of Lili tediously cruel prove, + 

Go and dance the tarantella with the girls of Hôkusai! + 

In the golden-citied world from Paris unto Tokiô + 

We are quite at home, we saunter languidly through tall Shanghai; + 

Chairete! the shaw of rosy Persia is a gentleman, + 

Charming people in Benares where the Ganges loiters by; + 

Allah akbar! O great world, O golden-tower’d cities gay, + 

Into all your gates with laughter and with roses enter I! + 

Kalliste, your Persian ghazal cease to sing: the sun is low, + 

And the sacred hour of absinthe now is very very nigh. + 