Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

From “The Songs of Bilitis”CXVI. The Warm Girdle

By Pierre Louÿs (1870–1925)

(1894. Translated from the French by Horace Manchester Brown. 1904) “THOU thinkest thou lovest me no more, Teleas, and since a month thou passest thy nights at table, as if the fruits, the wines, the honey, could make thee forget my lips. Thou thinkest that thou lovest me no more, poor fool!”	1
Saying that, I untied my moist girdle and rolled it about his head. It was still all warm with the heat of my body; the perfume of my skin poured out of its fine meshes.	2
He breathed with long breaths, his eyes closed; then I felt that he returned to me, and even saw clearly his desires reawaken, and he hid them not, but, as a ruse, I knew how to resist.	3
“No, my friend, this night, Lysippos possesses me. Adieu!” And I added as I fled: “Oh, gourmand of fruits and wines! The little garden of Bilitis has but one fig, but it is good.”	4