The Clock - Transversion from Baudelaire

The Clock

Sinister God, frightening and impassive,

Your hands menace us with each utterance -“Remember!”

The vibrant pains in your heart full of fear,

Like a target, will soon murmur.

Vapourish pleasures abscond onto the fleeting horizon,

Like an usherette at the back of the theatre.

Every instant delicious snippets are being devoured

Accorded to each man and from every season.  

3650 times an hour, the micro-seconds whisper;

“Remember!” Rapid with their insect voices,

Now they say: I am already another time,

As they suck your life with their squalid hypodermics.

Remember! Souviens- toi! Prodigal! Esto memor!

( Their mechanical throats speak all languages )

The minute hands, which are playfully mortal,

 Are coasted in the most- flimsy patented gold.

Remember also that Time is an avid player

Who wins without cheating as it has no need being the Law.

The days decrease, the nights augment souviens toi!

The abyss is always thirsty, as the clepsydra leaks.

Now that the hour of divine hazard tolls

Oh august virtue, your virginal bride,

Or even the repentant  ( Oh, the last refuge!)

Will tell you: grow up you coward, before it is too late.

https://fleursdumal.org/poem/218