Songs of Bilitis - Benjamin Adamah

THE VOW
"When the waters of the river climb the snowy-covered peaks; when wheat and
barley sprout between the moving ocean hills;
"When pine-trees take their birth from lakes and water-lilies spring from stones,
and when the sun grows black and the moon falls on the grass;
"Then but then alone, shall I take another mistress, then shall I forget thee,
Bilitis, soul of my life, heart of my heart."
He told me so! he told me so! What matters all the world,--where is the madder
ecstasy to match itself beside my own!
NIGHT
And now 'tis I who seek him. Each night I softly steal from out the house, and
travel by a long and devious path unto his meadow, there to watch him sleep.
Sometimes I stay a long time, never speaking, happy just to see him; just to kiss
his breath I bend my lips unto his own.
Then suddenly I stretch myself upon him. He wakens in my arms and cannot
rise, for I resist him. He scolds and laughs and tightly squeezes me. Thus do we
play in the night.
. . . The blush of dawn, oh, naughty glow on the horizon, you already! Within
what cave forever night, upon what meadow underneath the ground, shall we be
able, wrapped in love, to love so long that we should soon forget the memory of
you. . .
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