T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
From “The Songs of Bilitis”LXXXVII. Gyrinno
By Pierre Louÿs (1870–1925)(1894. Translated from the French by Horace Manchester Brown. 1904) BELIEVE not that I have ever loved thee. I have eaten thee as I would a ripe fig, I have drank thee as I would drink hot water, I have carried thee about me like a belt of skin. | 1 |
| I have amused myself with thy body because thou hast short hair and pointed breasts upon thy thin chest, and black nipples like two little dates. | 2 |
| Just as one must have water and fruit, a woman is also necessary, but already I have forgotten thy name, thou, who hast passed between my arms like the shadow of another adored one. | 3 |
| Between thy flesh and mine a burning dream has possessed me. I pressed thee upon me as though upon a wound, and I cried, Mnasidika! Mnasidika! Mnasidika! | 4 |