Songs of Bilitis - Benjamin Adamah

TO GYRINNO
Do not think that I have loved you. I have eaten you like a ripe fig, and drunk
you like a draught of burning water, and worn you about me like a girdle of flesh.
I have amused myself with you, because you have short hair and pointed breasts
upon your slender body, and nipples black as little dates.
As one must have fruits and water, a woman also sates a living thirst; but
already I no longer know your name, you who have lain within my arms like the
shade of another loved one.
Between your flesh and mine a burning dream has claimed me for its own. I
pressed you on me as upon a wound, and cried: "Mnasidika! Mnasidika!
Mnasidika!"
LAST ATTEMPT
What do you want, old girl? --To console you. --'Tis wasted effort. --I have been
told that since your quarrel, you've gone from love to love, but have never found
forgetfulness or peace. I come to suggest some one to you.
--Speak. --She is a young slave born in Sardis. She has not her equal in the world,
for she is both man and woman, although her breast and long hair and clear voice
are most deceptive.
--Her age? --Sixteen. --Her height? --Tall. She has known no one here excepting
Psappha, who is madly in love with her and wished to buy her from me for
twenty minae. If you should hire her, then she is yours. --What shall I do about
it?
For twenty-two nights I've tried in vain to flee from memory. . . So be it; I'll take
this one more, but warn the dear that she should not be frightened if I sob within
her arms.
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