Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

From “The Songs of Bilitis”C. The Perfumes

By Pierre Louÿs (1870–1925)

(1894. Translated from the French by Horace Manchester Brown. 1904) I WILL perfume all my skin that I may attract lovers. Upon my beautiful legs, in a basin of silver, I will pour the spikenard of Tarsos, and the metopion 1 of Egypt.	1
Under my arms, crushed mint; upon my eyebrows and upon my eyes, marjolaine of Koos. Slave, take down my hair and fill it with the smoke of incense.	2
Behold the oinanthe (briony) of the mountains of Kypros; I will let it run between my breasts; the liquor of roses which comes from Phaselis, shall embalm my neck and my cheeks.	3
And come, pour out upon my loins the irresistible bakkaris (inula). It is better for a courtesan that she should know the perfumes of Lydia, than the customs of the Peloponnesus.	4

Note 1. Galbanum. [back]