The Flute - Pierre Louÿs

For the Hyacinthian day he gave me some Panic pipes, of measured reeds well-cut, bound each to each with soft white wax, sweet as honey to my lips.

Illustration for The Flute
by Willy Pogany

He teaches me to play, I seated on his knees; perhaps I tremble just a bit too much. He then plays after me in tones so sweet I scarce can hear them.

We did not have a word to tell each other, we were so close together all the time, but the songs we sang were answers to each other, and time again our mouths would seek the flute to find each other's there.

How late it is! the green night-frog commences now to sing. My mother never will believe I stayed so long to try to find the girdle that I lost.

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Pierre Louÿs (1870 - 1925) France
Translated by Alvah C. Bessie
Source:The Songs of Bilitis by Pierre Louÿs translated by Alvah C. Bessie, Macy-Masius, 1926