Songs of Bilitis - Benjamin Adamah

DESIRE
At night, they left us on a high white terrace, fainting among the roses. Warm
perspiration flowed like heavy tears from our armpits, running on our breasts.
An over-whelming pleasure-lust flushed our thrown-back heads.
Four captive doves, bathed in four different perfumes, fluttered silently above our
heads. Drops of scent fell from their wings upon the naked women. I was
streaming with the odor of the iris.
Oh, weariness! I laid my cheek upon a young girl's belly, who cooled her body
with my humid hair. My open mouth was drunken with her saffron-scented skin.
She slowly closed her thighs about my neck.
I dreamed, but an exhausting dream awakened me: the iynx, bird of nightdesires,
sang madly from afar. I coughed and shivered. An arm, as languid as a
flower, rose in the air, stretching towards the moon.
THE INN
Inn-keeper, we are four. Give us a room with two beds. It is too late now to return
to the city, and the rain has split the roads.
Bring us a basket of figs, some cheese and black wine; but first take off my
sandals and wash my feet, for the mud is tickling me.
You'll have two basins of water brought to the room, a full lamp, a krater 135 and
a kylix. You'll shake the covers and beat up all the pillows.
But the beds must be of good solid maple, and the planks silent! Tomorrow you
will not awaken us.
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