1. In Paris I have glimpsed the sky
Above the Arc de Triomphe, not in Boutmis

2. Wherever I saw everything
Pleasant to the eyes or souls

3. O brother of taste, stop at this arch
And send your gaze in all directions

4. And beware, for how many a gaze was snatched
When it admired the most splendid

5. You may then see all majesty, were it described
Like the fixed above the moving

6. Everything confounded the mind, as
Thoughts were confused by the ambiguous

7. And the palm brought back the pen
What purpose do pens serve here?

8. Except to portray the light that shone here
Accompanied by its immaculate mirror?

9. For the mirror makes clear to us
The paper of the branch and hides the fruit

10. So we walked toward our destined darkness
Bearing saucers without the rainclouds

11. O my companions, head for this sanctuary
You who walk under the pillars

12. Seize the morn and give knowledge of what
Every utterance besides it lacks

13. I came to sublime Paris
And my eyes saw what I had heard

14. I smelled what neither my eyes saw
Nor my ears heard, nor did my soul grasp

15. Ah, what are these buildings and splendors?
Are they towers or stars that rose?

16. Every neighborhood or inanimate thing ascended
And donned the garb of glory and greatness

17. A spectacle that overwhelms the mind with
Signs the ages forgot

18. A spectacle that reveals its secret to the eyes in vain
Unless thoughts were enlightened in it

19. For the visible is the lot of beasts
While the hidden is for humankind

20. Everything in this horizon is manifest to you
Requiring long study and keeping vigil

21. It is from the creativity of the greatest minds
In the days of the Gauls, not Andalusia

22. If the ancients came to this age
They would gnaw their hands in awe

23. Turn your gaze upon these shining pearls
And the pipes like veins that plunge in light to nourish vision

24. And look upon the brilliant comets
How they glance around bewildered

25. Darkness was defeated here and retreated
To the mists of Atlas

26. The sky is the earth here, and the earth the sky
Marvel at this inversion!

27. And you see each female idol of love
Placed while she carries it

28. A being whose stature is for desire’s sake
An idol, and her thigh is a temple

29. Where is one like the slender waists
And breasts like grains of sand?

30. O poet, visit these effigies
To gain a delightful spirit

31. They are in Paris the quintessence of knowledge
And for all people, all passions

32. Paris would not have appeared in such splendor
Were it not for the love of gathering and revelry

33. Adorned with buildings, structures
Melodies, songs, and joy

34. So everyone hastened and approached it
Spending silver and gold on it

35. And for this money it was inclined
Like an offered maiden, easily obtained

36. Neither denying nor feeling ashamed
Of what it never refused the embrace of a thief