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THE STREAM IN THE WOOD<br />
I bathed alone in the stream in the wood. I must have frightened the poor naïads,<br />
for I could scarcely see them far away in the dark water.<br />
I called to them. To mimic them I plaited iris blossoms, black as my hair, about<br />
my neck, twined with knots <strong>of</strong> yellow gilly-flowers.<br />
With a long floating weed, I made myself a green girdle, and to see it I pressed<br />
my breasts and inclined my head a little.<br />
And I called: "Naïads! naïads! play with me, be nice." But the naïads are<br />
transparent, and perhaps I even caressed their lissom arms, unknowing!<br />
PHITTA MELIAI<br />
As soon as the sun's heat diminishes, we will go and play on the banks <strong>of</strong> the<br />
river; we will struggle for a frail crocus, or for a sopping hyacinth.<br />
We will make a human necklace, and we'll weave a wreath <strong>of</strong> girls. We will take<br />
each other by the hand, and grasp each other's tunic-skirts.<br />
Phitta Meliai! give us honey! Phitta Naïades! let us bathe with you. Phitta<br />
Meliades! shade sweetly our perspiring bodies.<br />
And we will <strong>of</strong>fer you, oh! beneficent nymphs, no shameful wine, but oil and milk<br />
and many crook-horned goats.<br />
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