| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | From “The Songs of Bilitis”
XXX. The Tresses | | By Pierre Louÿs (1870–1925) |
| | (1894. Translated from the French by Horace Manchester Brown. 1904) |
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HE said to me, “Last night I dreamed. | |
| Thy locks were swept about my neck. | |
| I had thy hair, like a black necklace, | |
| All about my nape, and spread upon my breast. | |
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| “I kissed it, and it was mine; | 5 |
| And by it we were bound together for all time; | |
| With lip upon lip, and intertwining locks, | |
| We were one, like two laurels with one root. | |
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| “And little by little it seemed to me, | |
| So were our limbs confused, | 10 |
| I became thyself, and that thou | |
| Entered into me like my thought.” | |
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| When he had finished speaking, | |
| Softly he laid his hand upon my shoulders, | |
| Into my eyes he gazed so tenderly, | 15 |
| That I lowered my glance, shivering. | | | |
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