SECTION III

§ 3. - _Réunions of companies ( societies ? ) ._

Men ( People ? ) of the same age, the same tastes, the same education, meet in company ( society ? ), either at courtesans in good name and in their company, or in the house of one of them, to converse, compose verses and Communicate them itself. In this last case, the women distinguished by their beauty, and who have tastes and similar talents, can be admitted ( supposed ? ) and receive honorings.

Often the conversations were a joust of poetic improvisations and opposite quotations of different poets.

To give an idea, we arranged ( settled ? ) the following dialogue with poets' quotations:

A BRAHMANE SAVANT. - By whom was made this maze of uncertainty, this temple of immodesties, this receptacle of faults, this field sowed ( scattered ? ) with one thousand deceits, this barrier of the door of the Sky, this mouth of the infernal town, this basket filled ( performed ? ) with all the subtleties, this poison which looks like the ambroisie, this rope which attaches the mortal to the world by low, the woman in brief?

A COURTISANE. - The false wise person who spoken ill of the women deceives himself and the others; because the fruit of the punishment is _Ciel_ and the Sky offers Apsaras to those who obtain him ( it ? ).

THE BRAHMANE. - The women have some honey in their words and some poison in the heart, also as it is sucked them lips, whereas we strike them the breast with the lapel ( reverse ? ) of the hand [ 17 ].

[ Note 17: Pétrone said:

« Every woman, in itself, hides a corrupting poison, The honey is on its lip, and the gall in its heart. »]

THE COURTISANE. - The madmen who avoid ( flee ? ) the women obtain only bitter fruits; their silly thing and the god of love chastise them cruelly. When honorable men ( people ? ) will succeed in mastering their senses ( directions ? ), mountain Vindhyas will cross Ocean by swimming.

THE BRAHMANE. - He ( It ? ) is low here only a garden filled ( performed ? ) with pernicious flowers, it is the youth; it is the home ( foyer ? ) of the passion, the cause of more cutting punishments ( efforts ? ) than would make it bear hundred hells, the germ of the madness, the curtain of clouds which covers the light of the science, the only weapon of the God of the love, the chain ( channel ? ) of faults of all kinds.

THE COURTISANE. - An old blind in one eye, lame, scabious dog, having only the skin and the bones and the mouth of which is torn by the shards at which it eats away, still pursues the bitches; the God of the love torments until the dying. When the tree Açoka is got ( touched ? ) by the foot of a beautiful, its flowers bloom in succession [18].

[ Note 18: beautiful Indian legend.]

The sensual women fire all the hearts of their lascivious graces ( favours ? ); they chat with the one, send to other one of the provocative winks, the third occupies their heart.

THE BRAHMANE. - The One who, mastering his senses ( directions ? ), confused ( merged ? ) his ( her;its ? ) intelligence in the supreme soul, whom he has to make talks of the beloved, the honey of their lips, the moon of the face, games of love accompanied with sighs in which we press their round bosoms?

THE COURTISANE. - The Doctors having ceaselessly in the mouth the holy papers, are the only ones who speak, and only about the end of lips, to give up the love.

Who could avoid ( flee ? ) the hips of the beautiful girls decorated with noisy belts, on which hang red pearls?

What woman begins in her passion, Brahma has himself no courage to put it obstacle [ 19 ].

[ Note 19: we say in the same sense ( direction ? ): what woman wants, God wants him ( it ? ).]

A MAN MUR. - The man is sure of his honor, his virtue, his wisdom, that when his heart and his firm resolutions resisted triumphantly to the corruption by the women.

How much succumbed by them, whom all the gold of the world would not have been able to buy!

A young person HOMME. - What is the most beautiful spectacles? The face inhaling the love of a girl. What is the most pleasant flavors? His ( her;its ? ) sweet breath. What is the most pleasant sounds? The voice ( vote ? ) of the beloved.

What is the most delicious savours? The dew which moistens its lips.

What is the sweetest contacts?

That of its body.

What is the most pleasant image on which the thought can stop ( arrest ? )? His ( her;its ? ) charms.

Everything in the liked girl is full of attractions.

A FAST POÈTE. - The young virgin is similar to the soft button of the not yet spread rose; in all her ( its ? ) purity, she ( it ? ) grows in peace in the shade of the guardian copse, shielded from any insult; but when his ( her;its ? ) revealed breast lent itself to the kisses of the seductive nightingale, soon separated from its maternal stalk and despicably associated to the herb on which walks a vulgar foot, we expose ( explain ? ) him ( it ? ) to the passers-by on the square, and withered ( branded ? ) then by one thousand impure kisses we would look in vain for his ( her;its ? ) virgin coolness (see the Appendix).

OTHER young person HOMME. - Léger to smile on lips, at the same moment fearless and shy glances, cheerful babble, flight ( leak ? ), hasty return, are not exuberant and continual amusements everything charming at the young lady's in doe eyes?

When they are absent, we long to see them.

When we see them we have only a desire, to enjoy their embrace.

When we are in the arms, we cannot tear away ( extract ? ) from it any more.

THE FAST POÈTE. - Has what mortal is intended this similar charming beauty in its coolness for a flower the flavor of which we have not inhaled yet, not got ( touched ? ) the fine sleeping bag; in a soft bud which a profane nail did not dare to separate from its stalk, in a still pure pearl within gives lustre to her ( it ? ) defender where she ( it ? ) originated?