Salome How wasted he is! He is like a thin ivory statue. He is like an image of silver. I am sure he is chaste, as the moon is. He is like a moonbeam, like a shaft of silver. His flesh must be very cold, cold as ivory.…I would look closer at him.

The Young Syrian No, no, Princess!

Salome I must look at him closer.

The Young Syrian Princess! Princess!

Iokanaan Who is this woman who is looking at me? I will not have her look at me. Wherefore doth she look at me, with her golden eyes, under her gilded eyelids? I know not who she is. I do not desire to know who she is. Bid her begone. It is not to her that I would speak.

Salome I am Salome, daughter of Herodias, Princess of Judaea.

Iokanaan Back! daughter of Babylon! Come not near the chosen of the Lord. Thy mother hath filled the earth with the wine of her iniquities, and the cry of her sinning hath come up even to the ears of God.

Salome Speak again, Iokanaan. Thy voice is as music to mine ear.

The Young Syrian Princess! Princess! Princess!

Salome Speak again! Speak again, Iokanaan, and tell me what I must do.

Iokanaan Daughter of Sodom,° come not near me! But cover thy face with a veil, and scatter ashes upon thine head, and get thee to the desert, and seek out the Son of Man.°

Salome Who is he, the Son of Man? Is he as beautiful as thou art, Iokanaan?

Iokanaan Get thee behind me! I hear in the palace the beating of the wings of the angel of death.°

The Young Syrian Princess, I beseech thee to go within.

Iokanaan Angel of the Lord God, what dost thou here with thy sword? Whom seekest thou in this palace? The day of him who shall die in a robe of silver has not yet come.

Salome Iokanaan!

Iokanaan Who speaketh?

Salome I am amorous of thy body, Iokanaan! Thy body is white,° like the lilies of a field that the mower hath never mowed. Thy body is white like the snows that lie on the mountains of Judaea, and come down into the valleys. The roses in the garden of the Queen of Arabia are not so white as thy body. Neither the roses of the garden of the Queen of Arabia, the garden of spices of the Queen of Arabia, nor the feet of the dawn when they light on the leaves, nor the breast of the moon when she lies on the breast of the sea.…There is nothing in the world so white as thy body. Suffer me to touch thy body.

Iokanaan Back! daughter of Babylon! By woman came evil into the world. Speak not to me. I will not listen to thee. I listen but to the voice of the Lord God.

Salome Thy body is hideous. It is like the body of a leper. It is like a plastered wall, where vipers have crawled; like a plastered wall where the scorpions have made their nest. It is like a whited sepulchre, full of loathsome things. It is horrible, thy body is horrible. It is of thy hair that I am enamoured, Iokanaan. Thy hair is like clusters of grapes, like the clusters of black grapes that hang from the vine-trees of Edom° in the land of the Edomites. Thy hair is like the cedars of Lebanon, like the great cedars of Lebanon