Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. She shall pay me with coynte, that with his mouth, this with arse.
  1. Whoso of violets here shall pluck or rose,
  2. Or furtive greens or apples never bought,
  3. May he in want of woman or of boy
  4. By the same tension you in me behold
  5. Go burst, I ever pray, and may his yard
  6. Against his navel throb and rap in vain.
  1. Here has the bailiff, now of this plentiful garden the guardian,
  2. Bidden me care for the place he to my service entrusts.
  3. Thief! thou shalt suffer the pain albeit crying in anger--
  4. 'What! for a cabbage all this? This for a cabbage I bear?'
  1. This staff of office cut from tree as 'tis,
  2. No more with leafage green for aye to bloom;
  3. Staff by the pathic damsels fondly loved,
  4. Which e'en the kings delight in hand to hold
  5. And oft by noble catamites bekissed--
  6. This staff in robbers' vitals deep shall plunge
  7. Up to its bushy base and bag of balls.
  1. Hither, Quirites! (here what limit is?)
  2. Either my member seminal lop ye off