Arthur Rimbaud – Almea? / Is she an Almah?

Giorgio de Chirico, Triton and Siren, 1910

Is she an Almah?… in the first blue hours
 will she destroy herself like flowers of fire…
In front of the splendid sweep where one may smell
 the enormous flowering city’s breath!

It’s too beautiful! It’s too beautiful! but it is necessary
– For the Fisherwoman and the Corsair’s song,
and also because the last masqueraders still believed
in nocturnal festivities on the pure sea!

Almea?…alle prime ore azzurre si
 dissolverà come i fiori defunti…
dinanzi alla splendida distesa ove si sente
 soffiare la città enormemente fiorente!

E’ troppo bello! E’ troppo bello! Ma
 necessario – per la pescatrice e la canzone del corsaro
 ed anche perchè le ultime maschere
credettero ancora alle feste notturne sul mare puro!