Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Crisping his head with curling-tongs aglow
  2. That he be likest to a Moorish maid,
  3. 'Ho thou! (cried he) we tell thee, catamite;
  4. However much thou toast and curl thyself
  5. Is then a damsel more of worth, I ask,
  6. Than are the hairy honours of thy yard?'
  1. Ho girl! no whiter-skinned than Moorish man
  2. Yet, Oh! than every pathic softer far;
  3. Squatter than Pygmey fearful of the crane;
  4. Harsher and hairier than pelt of bear;
  5. Looser than Median or than Indian hose;