A translator ought to be faithful, but is not bound down to being literal. - Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Fold me fast, O God-snake of Eden!
(Sing Eden Bower!)
What more prize than love to impel thee?
Grip and lip my limbs as I tell thee!
...
Lo! sweet Snake, the travail and treasure, — -

Her enchanted hair was the first gold,
and still she sits, young while the earth is old.

When all desire at last and all regret
Go hand in hand to death, and all is vain,
What shall assuage the unforgotten pain
And teach the unforgetful to forget?