Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Staff by the pathic damsels fondly loved,
  2. Which e'en the kings delight in hand to hold
  3. And oft by noble catamites bekissed--
  4. This staff in robbers' vitals deep shall plunge
  5. Up to its bushy base and bag of balls.
  1. Hither, Quirites! (here what limit is?)
  2. Either my member seminal lop ye off
  3. Which thro' the livelong nights for aye fatigue
  4. The neighbour-women rutting endlessly,
  5. Lewder than sparrows in the lusty spring;
  6. Or I shall burst and ye Priapus lose.
  7. How I be futtered-out yourselves espy
  8. Used-up, bejaded, lean and pallid grown,
  9. Who erstwhile ruddy, in my doughtiness wont
  10. To kill with poking thieves however doughty.
  11. My side has failed me and poor I with cough
  12. The perilous spittle ever must outspew.
  1. Well-known darling of folk in the Circus Maximus far famed,
  2. Quinctia, tremulous hips trainèd and artful to wag,
  3. Cymbals and castanets (the wanton arms) to Priapus