| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | From “The Songs of Bilitis”
LXXVI. An Evening by the Fire | | By Pierre Louÿs (1870–1925) |
| | (1894. Translated from the French by Horace Manchester Brown. 1904)
THE WINTER is cold, Mnasidika. All is cold outside our bed. Rise, then, come with me, for I have lit a great fire with dead twigs and with split branches. | 1 |
| We will warm ourselves kneeling, all naked, our hair hanging upon our backs, and we will drink milk together from the same cup, and we will eat cakes with honey. | 2 |
| How gay and noisy is the flame! Art thou not too near? Thy skin becomes red. Let me kiss it wherever the fire has made it burning. | 3 |
| In the midst of the firebrands I will heat the iron and will dress thine hair here. With the charred splinters I will write thy name upon the wall. | 4 | | |
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