Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Nausicaä full oft bare in her well-fillèd lap;
  2. Sweet as the pome whereon Acontius limnèd the letters
  3. Which being read his Fair pledged to her love-longing swain;
  4. Such be the fruits that youth who owneth the flourishing fieldlet
  5. Placed on the table of stone, naked Priapus! for thee.
  1. What hast thou, meddling watch, with me to do?
  2. Why baulk the robber who to me would come?
  3. Let him draw nigh: the laxer shall he go.
  1. Aye in this prickle of ours the bonniest boon to be found is,
  2. Loose for my daily use never a woman can be.
  1. Will ever Telethusa, posture-mime,
  2. Who with no tunic veiling hinder cheeks
  3. Higher than her vitals heaves with apter geste
  4. Wriggle to please thee with her wavy loins?
  5. So thee, Priapus, not alone she'll move
  6. E'en Phaedra's stepson shall her movement rouse.
  1. Thunders are under Jove; with the trident weaponed is Neptune;
  2. Forceful is Mars with brand, spear, O Minerva, is thine;
  3. Liber engages in fray, confiding on sheaflets of Thyrsi;
  4. By th' Apollinean hand shafts (they assure us) are shot;