Lay she naked in the sea - Anonymous

Lay she naked in the sea

All the salt would sweetened be.

Showed she in the sunset West

Eastward-praying Christian even

Would look back and think it best

So to gaze and lose his heaven.

I saw her gleaming in the night,

"O Night," I cried in agitation,

"What is this phantom of delight?

Is it a tender ghost which haunts me,

Or a heated virgin wants me

For the joys of copulation?"

As in answer to this riddle,

She put down her hands and sighed,

Clasped the blossom of her middle

With her fingers, and replied:

"Fairest teeth need daily scraping

With an aromatic twig;

Chastest parts will sigh for raping

With a something bold and big.

Massulmen, has this not wrung you?

Is there not a zebb among you?"

Here I felt him crack his joint

While the vehemence which swelled him

Lifted up the clothes which held him

To a noticeable point.

So I let him out, but she

Started back in terror:

"I said twigs, and here's a tree.

Is there not some error?"

---

Anonymous (pre 9th cenury) Iraq (ancient Persia)

Translated by Dr J. C. Mardrus (into French) and Powys Mathers (from the French into English)

Source: The Book of the Thousand Nights and One Night, Volume III, Dorset Press, 1987