Songs of Bilitis (To Gyrinno)

TO GYRINNO

Do not think that I have loved you. I have
eaten you like a ripe fig, and drunk you
like a draught of burning water, and worn you
about me like a girdle of flesh.

I have amused myself with you, because
you have short hair and pointed breasts
upon your slender body, and nipples black
as little dates.

As one must have fruits and water, a
woman also sates a living thirst; but
already I no longer know your name, you
who have lain within my arms like the
shade of another loved one.

Between your flesh and mine a burning
dream has claimed me for its own. I
pressed you on me as upon a wound, and
cried: "Mnasidika! Mnasidika! Mnasidika!"