Songs of Bilitis

Excerpt

The Tree

I undressed to climb a tree; my naked thighs embraced the smooth and humid bark; my sandals climbed upon the branches.

High up, but still beneath the leaves and shaded from the heat, I straddled a wide-spread fork and swung my feet into the void.

It had rained. Drops of water fell and flowed upon my skin. My hands were soiled with moss and my heels were reddened by the crushed blossoms.

I felt the lovely tree living when the wind passed through it; so I locked my legs tighter, and crushed my open lips to the hairy nape of a bough.

Meeting

I found her as a treasure, in a field, under a myrtle bush; she was wrapped from throat to feet in a yellow peplos broidered fine with blue.

"I have no lover," she told me, "for the nearest town is forty stadia from here. I live alone but for my mother, who is a widow and is always sad. If you should wish me I would follow you.

"I'll follow to your house, though it should be upon the other sea-coast of the isle; and I'll live with you until you send me hence. Your hand is tender and your eyes are blue.

"Let us go. I'll carry nothing with me but the little nude Astarte which is hanging from my necklace. We'll place it close to yours, and reward them with red roses every night."