Songs of Bilitis - Benjamin Adamah

TO THE WASHERWOMEN
Oh, washerwomen, do not say that you have seen me! I trust myself to you; do
not betray me! Between my garment and my breasts, I bring you something to be
washed.
I am like a little frightened hen. . . I cannot say just yet if I dare tell . . . My
beating heart may even kill me now . . . I am bringing you a cloth.
A garment and the ribbons about my limbs. You see; there is some blood. By
Apollo, it was in spite of me! I struggled hard enough; but men who love are
stronger than we are.
Wash them well; spare neither salt nor chalk. I'll pledge four oboli for you at
Aphrodite's feet; and even a silver drachma.
SONG (2)
When he came back, I hid my face within my hands. He said: "Fear nothing. Who
has seen our kiss? --Who saw us? The night and the moon."
"And the stars and the first flush of dawn. The moon has seen its visage in the
lake, and told it to the water 'neath the willows. The water told it to the rower's
oar.
"And the oar has told it to the boat, and the boat has passed the secret to the
fisher. Alas! alas! if that were only all! But the fisher told the secret to a woman.
"The fisher told the secret to a woman: my father and my mother and my sisters,
and all of Hellas now shall know the tale."
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