{"collection":"Classics","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/cla/sob/sob109.htm","path":"cla/sob/sob109.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/cla/sob/sob109.htm","text":"As soon as he enters the room, no matter what he be (and can it matter?): \"Behold,\" I say to the slave, \"what a handsome man! and how happy a courtesan is.\"\nI call him Adonis, Ares or Herakles, according to his face, or the Old Man of the Seas, if his locks are silver-pale. And then what disdain I show for frivolous youth!\n\"Ah!\" I say, \"if tomorrow I had no need to pay my florist or my goldsmith, how I should love to say to you: 'I do not want your gold! I am your slave, impassioned!'\"\nThen, when he has clasped his arms behind my shoulders, I see a handsome boatman, like an image most divine, passing across the starry sky of my transparent lids.","title":"The Songs of Bilitis: III. Epigrams in the Isle of Cyprus: The Impartial One","type":"page"}