CXXIX THE LITTLE ROSE MERCHANT
Mitchell S. (Mitchell Starrett) Buck translation
YESTERDAY, Nais said to me, I was in the market when a little girl in red tatters passed, carrying roses, before a group of young men. And this is what I heard:
“Buy something from me.—Explain thyself, little one, for we know not what thou sellest; thyself? thy roses or all at once?—If you will buy from me all these flowers, you may have mine for nothing.
“And how much wishest thou for thy roses?—I must have six oboli for my mother, else I shall be beaten like a bitch.—Follow us. Thou shalt have a drachma.—Then, shall I seek my little sister?”
And both followed those men. They had no breasts, Bilitis. They knew not even how to smile. They trotted along like two kids which one leads to the butcher.