Don Juan 06-041 ~ 045
 
 
Don Juan 06-041
Canto the Sixth
 
     XLI
 
Lolah was dusk as India and as warm;
     Katinka was a Georgian, white and red,
With great blue eyes, a lovely hand and arm,
     And feet so small they scarce seem'd made to tread,
But rather skim the earth; while Dudu's form
     Look'd more adapted to be put to bed,
Being somewhat large, and languishing, and lazy,
Yet of a beauty that would drive you crazy.
 
 
Don Juan 06-042
Canto the Sixth
 
     XLII
 
A kind of sleepy Venus seem'd Dudu,
     Yet very fit to "murder sleep" in those
Who gazed upon her cheek's transcendent hue,
     Her Attic forehead, and her Phidian nose:
Few angles were there in her form, 't is true,
     Thinner she might have been, and yet scarce lose;
Yet, after all, 't would puzzle to say where
It would not spoil some separate charm to pare.
 
 
Don Juan 06-043
Canto the Sixth
 
     XLIII
 
She was not violently lively, but
     Stole on your spirit like a May-day breaking;
Her eyes were not too sparkling, yet, half-shut,
     They put beholders in a tender taking;
She look'd (this simile's quite new) just cut
     From marble, like Pygmalion's statue waking,
The mortal and the marble still at strife,
And timidly expanding into life.
 
 
Don Juan 06-044
Canto the Sixth
 
     XLIV
 
Lolah demanded the new damsel's name --
     "Juanna." -- Well, a pretty name enough.
Katinka ask'd her also whence she came --
     "From Spain." -- "But where is Spain?" -- "Don't ask such stuff,
Nor show your Georgian ignorance -- for shame!"
     Said Lolah, with an accent rather rough,
To poor Katinka: "Spain's an island near
Morocco, betwixt Egypt and Tangier."
 
 
Don Juan 06-045
Canto the Sixth
 
     XLV
 
Dudu said nothing, but sat down beside
     Juanna, playing with her veil or hair;
And looking at her steadfastly, she sigh'd,
     As if she pitied her for being there,
A pretty stranger without friend or guide,
     And all abash'd, too, at the general stare
Which welcomes hapless strangers in all places,
With kind remarks upon their mien and faces.
 
George Gordon Byron, Lord Byron (1788-1824)
ByronLong