My version has the Willy Pogány illustrations and is translated by Alvah C. Bessie.
I’ve been aware of this and meaning to read it for decades. I really don’t know from where—I seem to remember it occasionally cropping up in vague references or allusions. I had no real idea what it was about, but it seemed to be something that some knowledgeable and respected writers had read, and I had vague ideas of eroticism and there were some misty and not really remembered connections with Anaïs Nin and James Joyce in the junk rooms of my memory. So I read it.
I have to admit that I started it with a certain amount of prejudice, knowing that Louÿs had created a, so to speak, forgery. To my surprise, though, I found the character, Bilitis, quite easy to believe in. Once I got my head away from expecting her to be a genuine ancient Greek, I found her story intriguing and, often, quite moving. I’m writing as a male, of course, and very aware that the words were actually written (and translated) by a male and I do wonder if a female would find her voice so genuine, but I really felt for her depictions of unrequited love and of growing old and losing her looks. Time has robbed the erotic bits of any shock value they may have had but I found them reasonably convincing and wasn’t overly aware of them as simply male-gaze titillation.
I thought it quite good and I am glad to have finally read it (though it will always be a minor niggle with me that a male wrote it—don’t really know how to get my head around that). ( )

Pierre Louÿs (1870 - 1925) foi um poeta francês mais conhecido por seus temas lúdicos e clássicos, um escritor que "expressou sensualidade pagã com perfeição estilística". Em 1894, publicou uma coleção erótica de 143 poemas em prosa, Chansons de Bilitis. O que o tornou sensacional foi a alegação de Louys de que os poemas eram obra de uma antiga cortesã grega contemporânea de Safo, Bilitis; para si mesmo, Louÿs atribuiu-se o modesto papel de tradutor. Mas o simulacro não durou muito tempo e o "tradutor" Louÿs foi logo desmascarado como sendo Bilitis. Isso, no entanto, só fez aumentar o succès de scandale, sendo o livro elogiado como uma fonte de sensualidade elegante e estilo refinado, extraordinário como um retrato compassivo da sexualidade lésbica. Alguns dos poemas foram adaptados como música para voz e piano. O amigo íntimo de Louys, Claude Debussy, compôs um ciclo Chansons de Bilitis. Em 1955, uma das primeiras organizações lésbicas nos Estados Unidos se autodenominava Filhas de Bilitis, e até hoje as canções de Louÿs continuam a ser um trabalho importante para as lésbicas. ( )

Being erotic prose poems with atmospheric illustration. The writing is lovely and appealing; the illustrations have a period feel which is evocative of Beardsley's line drawing without the grotesque undertones. ( )

http://bactra.org/reviews/songs-of-bilitis/ ( )