Les Chansons De Bilitis by Pierre Louys

Description: The Songs of Bilitis (/bɪˈliːtɪs/; French: Les Chansons de Bilitis) is a collection of erotic, essentially lesbian, poetry by Pierre Lou s published in Paris in 1894. Since Lou s claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, this work is considered a pseudotranslation.[1] The poems were actually clever fabulations, authored by Lou s himself, and are still considered important literature. The poems are in the manner of Sappho; the collection's introduction claims they were found on the walls of a tomb in Cyprus, written by a woman of Ancient Greece called Bilitis (Greek: Βιλιτις), a courtesan and contemporary of Sappho's to whose life Lou s dedicated a small section of the book. On publication, the volume deceived even expert scholars.[2] Lou s claimed the 143 prose poems, excluding 3 epitaphs, were entirely the work of this ancient poet—a place where she poured both her most intimate thoughts and most public actions, from childhood innocence in Pamphylia to the loneliness and chagrin of her later years. Although for the most part The Songs of Bilitis is original work, many of the poems were reworked epigrams from the Palatine Anthology, and Lou s even borrowed some verses from Sappho herself. The poems are a blend of mellow sensuality and polished style in the manner of Parnassianism, but underneath run subtle Gallic undertones that Lou s could never escape. To lend authenticity to the forgery, Lou s in the index listed some poems as "untranslated"; he even craftily fabricated an entire section of his book called "The Life of Bilitis", crediting a certain fictional archaeologist Herr G. Heim ("Mr. C. Cret" in German) as the discoverer of Bilitis's tomb. And though Lou s displayed great knowledge of Ancient Greek culture, ranging from children's games in "Tortie Tortue" to application of scents in "Perfumes", the literary fraud was eventually exposed. This did little, however, to taint their literary value in readers' eyes, and Lou s's open and sympathetic celebration of lesbian sexuality earned him sensation and historic significance. from wikipedia

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