Schneier on Security

There is a famous exchange between French authors George Sand and Alfred de Musset, who have had a relationship, that also uses some form of steganography. The exchange is from the 19th century and goes like this:

First, George Sand wrote a poem to Alfred de Musset:

Je suis très émue de vous dire que j'ai
bien compris l'autre soir que vous aviez
toujours une envie folle de me faire
danser. Je garde le souvenir de votre
baiser et je voudrais bien que ce soit
là une preuve que je puisse être aimée
par vous. Je suis prête à vous montrer mon
affection toute désintéressée et sans cal-
cul, et si vous voulez me voir aussi
vous dévoiler sans artifice mon âme
toute nue, venez me faire une visite.
Nous causerons en amis, franchement.
Je vous prouverai que je suis la femme
sincère, capable de vous offrir l'affection
la plus profonde comme la plus étroite
en amitié, en un mot la meilleure preuve
dont vous puissiez rêver, puisque votre
âme est libre. Pensez que la solitude où j'ha-
bite est bien longue, bien dure et souvent
difficile. Ainsi en y songeant j'ai l'âme
grosse. Accourrez donc vite et venez me la
faire oublier par l'amour où je veux me
mettre.

The poem is very proper and polite if you read it entirely, but if you skip every other line, it becomes very explicit.

Alfred de Musset responded with the following poem:

Quand je mets à vos pieds un éternel hommage
Voulez-vous qu'un instant je change de visage ?
Vous avez capturé les sentiments d'un cour
Que pour vous adorer forma le Créateur.
Je vous chéris, amour, et ma plume en délire
Couche sur le papier ce que je n'ose dire.
Avec soin, de mes vers lisez les premiers mots
Vous saurez quel remède apporter à mes maux.

The key in this message is to read the first word of each line, which translates to: "When do you want me to sleep with you?"
De Musset actually provides the key himself in the final two lines of his poem.

George Sand's final answer feigns disgust:

Cette insigne faveur que votre cour réclame
Nuit à ma renommée et répugne mon âme.

But the first words of each line translates to "Tonight."

"d'un cour" should be "d'un coeur" (... of a heart).

Oops. Sorry, I hadn't seen it (I copied/pasted the text from a website because I did not remember the entire poem by heart)

@Courtney:
I could translate the poem, both the entire version and the explicit version, but it would be difficult to make it work the same way, because there are some plays on words that do not translate well in English, such as the word "baiser" which can both mean "kiss" (in the proper version) and "f**k" (in the explicit version), or the word "calcul", which can be translated to "agenda" in the proper version, but is hyphenated in such a way that only the word "cul" is being used in the explicit version. "Cul" is French for "ass."

That part of the poem could translate to: "I want to show you my affection, disinterested and without hidden agenda..."
In the explicit version, it becomes: "I want to show you my ass."

@Jason

Such as, what the heck does "mad dance" mean?

I'll try to translate the beginning of the poem:

I am very moved when I tell you that I
have understood very well the other night that you
still madly want to
dance with me. I keep a fond memory of your
kiss, and I would love it if it were
a proof that I could be loved
by you.

When reading every other line, mentally replace the word "kiss" with the F-word.