T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
From “The Songs of Bilitis” LXV. The Kiss
By Pierre Louÿs (1870–1925)
(1894. Translated from the French by Horace Manchester Brown. 1904)
I WOULD kiss the whole length of the rich black locks that grace thy neck like wings; oh! sweet bird, oh! captured dove, whose passion-filled heart beats under my hand.
I would take thy lips between mine own, as a babe takes the breast of its mother. Tremble!—Thrill! Sweet one,—my kisses reach far, and should satisfy thy love.
Lightly will I touch thy breasts and arms with my tongue and lips, and behind thine ears, and upon thy neck I will leave the marks of my kisses; and while I kiss thee my hands shall stray in mad delight over the ivory nakedness of thy sensitive body, trembling under the touch of my nails.
Listen, Mnasidika! Hear the murmuring of my love in thine ears, like the wild humming of the sea. Mnasidika, thy look drives me mad; I will close thy burning eyes with a kiss, as if they were thy lips.
