| In a Byzantine harem
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| Where, seeking paradise
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| I’d disguised myself as a dog
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| A slave told me:
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| Me, I’d like heavy pearls
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| Enamelled black pearls
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| To be dumb, and almost deaf
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| So that you’d soothe me with words
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| Words which resemble the sea
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| Words that one sees through
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| Words of bitterness and love
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| Tender words, severe words
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| Me, I’d like crowded rooms
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| Where stretched out naked on all fours
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| Encircled by dogs and chains
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| Tasting mysterious liquors
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| Drinks of life and drinks of death
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| Cups filled to the brim
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| I place my moist and eager lips
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| On the kneeling stools therein
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| Me I’d like a black slave
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| With the white teeth, strong and cruel
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| Who’d split my shackles wide
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| And who’ll take me to the sky
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| In the damp languor of evening
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| Me all white, and he all black
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| He’d bite my body, sliding
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| With a serpent slow… attack
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| Me, I’d like to be a young woman
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| Behind glass and iron bars
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| As pleasure takes my every breath
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| Until sleep, until death
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| Beneath my purple-blue eyelids
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| You know, I have only one thought
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| To be a woman, yes, it’s true
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| To be a real woman
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| God… please…please |