Priapeia

Priaepia

by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers

  1. Yet on me gazing forthright gigglest thou
  2. And holdest funny matter to deride
  3. The pillar perking from the groin of me.
  1. 'Ware of my catching! If caught, with rod I never will harm thee
  2. Nor to thee deal sore wound using my sickle that curves.
  3. Pierced with a foot-long pole thy skin shall be stretched in such fashion
  4. Thou shalt be fain to believe ne'er had a wrinkle thine arse.
  1. A she (than Hector's parent longer aged,
  2. Sister to Cumae's Sibyl seemeth me;
  3. Equal to thee whom, to his home returned,
  4. Theseus found lying in the fosse a-cold!)
  5. Hither with tottering gait is wont to come;
  6. And, wrinkled hands upraising to the stars,
  7. Begs that she'll never fail a yard to find;
  8. And, as yester'een she prayed ere daylight fled
  9. One of three teeth she happened out to crache.
  10. 'Bear it afar (cried I) and let it lurk
  11. Beneath thy tattered robe and tawny stole;
  12. (Fen as 'tis ever wont); and dread the fight
  13. Of meagre jaws which ope with such a gape--