 Illustration byGeorges Barbier forThe Songs of Bilitis | |
| Author | Pierre Louÿs |
|---|---|
| Original title | Les Chansons de Bilitis |
| Language | French |
| Genre | Poetry,erotica |
Publication date | 1894 |
| Publication place | France |
| Media type | |
The Songs of Bilitis (/bɪˈliːtɪs/;French:Les Chansons de Bilitis) is a collection of erotic, essentiallylesbian, poetry byPierre Louÿs published in Paris in 1894. Since Louÿs claimed that he had translated the original poetry from Ancient Greek, this work is considered apseudotranslation.[1] The poems werefabulations, authored by Louÿs himself,[2] and are still considered important literature.
The poems are in the manner ofSappho; the collection's introduction claims they were found on the walls of atomb inCyprus, written by a woman ofAncient Greece calledBilitis (Greek:Βιλιτις), acourtesan and contemporary of Sappho's to whose life Louÿs dedicated a small section of the book. On publication, the volume deceived even expert scholars.[3]
Louÿs 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 inPamphylia to the loneliness and chagrin of her later years.
Although for the most partThe Songs of Bilitis is original work, many of the poems were reworked epigrams from thePalatine Anthology, and Louÿs even borrowed some verses from Sappho herself. The poems are a blend of mellow sensuality and polished style in the manner ofParnassianism, but underneath run subtle Gallic undertones that Louÿs could never escape.
To lend authenticity to the forgery, Louÿs 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 Louÿs 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 Louÿs's open and sympathetic celebration of lesbian sexuality earned him sensation and historic significance.
In 1894 Louÿs, travelling in Italy with his friendFerdinand Hérold [fr], grandson of thecomposer of the same name (1791–1831), metAndré Gide, who described how he had just lost his virginity to a Berber girl named Meriem in the oasis resort-town ofBiskra inAlgeria; Gide urged his friends to go to Biskra and follow his example. TheSongs of Bilitis are the result of Louÿs and Hérold's shared encounter with Meriem the dancing-girl, and the poems are dedicated to Gide with a special mention to "M.b.A", Meriem ben Atala.[4]
TheSongs of Bilitis are separated into three cycles, each representative of a phase of Bilitis's life:Bucolics in Pamphylia—childhood and first sexual encounters,Elegies atMytilene—indulgence in homosexual sensuality, andEpigrams in the Isle of Cyprus—life as a courtesan. Each cycle progresses toward a melancholy conclusion, each conclusion signalling a new, more complex chapter of experience, emotion, and sexual exploration. Each of these melancholy conclusions is demarcated by a tragic turn in Bilitis's relationships with others. In the first stage of her life, Bucolics, she falls in love with a young man but is then raped by him after he comes upon her napping in the woods; she marries him and has a child by him, but his abusive behavior compels her to abandon the relationship. In the second stage (Elegies), her relationship with her beloved Mnasidika turns cold and ends in estrangement, prompting her to relocate once again. Finally, in the Epigrams, in the Isle of Cyprus, despite her fame, she finds herself longing for Mnasidika. Ultimately, she and her beauty are largely forgotten; she pens her poems in silent obscurity, resolute in her knowledge that "those who will love when [she is] gone will sing [her] songs together, in the dark."
One of Louÿs's technical accomplishments was to coincide Bilitis's growing maturity and emotional complexity with her changing views of divinity and the world around her—after leaving Pamphylia and Mytilene, she becomes involved in intricate mysteries, moving away from a mythical world inhabited by satyrs and Naiads. This change is perhaps best reflected by the symbolic death of the satyrs and Naiads in "The Tomb of the Naiads".
Louÿs dedicated a small section of the book to the fictional character ofBilitis (Greek:Βιλιτις), whom he invented for the book's purpose. He claimed she was acourtesan and contemporary ofSappho's, and the author of the poems that he had translated. He went so far as not only to outline her life in a biographical sketch, but also to describe how her fictional tomb was discovered by a fictional archeological expedition, and include a list of additional, "untranslated", works by her.[3]
While the work was eventually shown to be apseudotranslation by Louÿs, initially it misled a number of scholars, such asJean Bertheroy, who retranslated several poems without realizing they were fakes.[3]
Like the poems of Sappho, those ofThe Songs of Bilitis address themselves toSapphic love. The book became a sought-after cult item among the 20th-centurylesbian underground and was only reprinted officially in the 1970s. The expanded French second edition is reprinted in facsimile byDover Books in America. This second edition had a title page that read: "This little book of antique love is respectfully dedicated to the young women of a future society."
In 1955, theDaughters of Bilitis was founded in San Francisco[5] as thefirst[5]lesbiancivil and political rights organization in the United States. In regard to its name,Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon, two of the group's founders, said "If anyone asked us, we could always say we belong to a poetry club."[6]
In 1965,Peggy Caserta named her clothing store inHaight-Ashbury Mnasidika after a character inThe Songs of Bilitis.[7]
The book was translated into Polish twice, in 1920 byLeopold Staff and in 2010 byRobert Stiller.[3]
English translations:
The Songs of Bilitis has been illustrated extensively by numerous artists.
The most famous artist to illustrate the book was the French painterLouis Icart, while the most famous illustrations were done by the Hungarian artistWilly Pogany for a 1926 privately circulated English language translation: they were drawn in anart-deco style, with numerous visual puns on sexual objects, such as the couch inThe Living Past which has an undeniable phallic shape.
Other artists have beenGeorges Barbier,Edouard Chimot,Jeanne Mammen,Pascal Pia,Joseph Kuhn-Régnier,Sigismunds Vidbergs, Pierre Leroy, Alméry Lobel Riche,Suzanne Ballivet, Pierre Lissac, Paul-Emile Bécat, Monique Rouver, Génia Minache, Lucio Milandre, A-E Marty, J.A. Bresval, James Fagan and Albert Gaeng from Geneva.[citation needed]
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