Opium, kind and subtle opium!
Thou, who chaseth away
All the sorrows of this world!
Thou who drowneth all pain
Of wounds unseen, of hidden loss...
Opium, beloved indulgence
Heal my soul with poison
Breath this nauseous vapour
Separate mind from body
Papaver somniferum,
Precious gift of Morpheus
Joy plant of blissful woe
Nepenthes Pharmakon
Every night I enter
The chasms and shadowed abysses
Narcotic depths from which
I have no hope to reascend
I have kissed her lips
I met her tempting eyes
Her lust now taints my heart
Sweet, deadly Lady Vice
Morpheus, Nighted God of Dreams,
Has enthralled me
In his realm of dark visage
I am but a slave
To the exquisite pleasures
Of the poppy
Sweet sedation,
Blissful narcosis,
I hath known things unthinkable,
Dreamt things undreamable,
Endured pain unendurable
Every day doth I shun the sun
For my eyes
Have grown accustomed to the dark
They have learned to stay
Forever shut
Every day doth I seek the drug
Which alone
Makes my life endurable
The balm that one day
Will also surely end it
Praise to thee, oh, merciful opium!
