BILITIS I
To Pierre Louÿs

A
Ah, the Taurus mountains! Blossom-shaded woods
Fairies, their hair colored in orange.
Ripened the queen of all females
On the forested meadow where you sang songs
Your hair smells of lily, of hyacinth,
Where you crushed your breasts, having put on mosses
In the forested brook, under starlight
The shepherd stole a kiss from your pomegranate lips.

B
Forest fairies with hair blue,
To wear rosebuds in their hair
Entered the rose hip valley by the moonlit path.
She searched for the cast of her breast in the flowing stream,
A few branches of gillyflower fell upon her mind
The divine goddess of free love
Realized her virginity as she watched her reflection in Karasu1
Unable to find the shepherd who broke his promise
The eternal night cut short by daylight so soon.

C
Ah! The fairies, goat kids, the moonlight
Nomad girls’ plaintive songs.

Oguz Tansel
Translated by Aysıt Tansel
1 The river “Dark Water”