Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Canst from the garden in my charge contain,
  2. First shall this watchman, ever lustful loon,
  3. Entering and exiting alternate-wise
  4. Widen thy portal to its fullest stretch
  5. Then shall the couple guarding either flank,
  6. Grandly provided with those pensile parts,
  7. After they've sorely pierced thee prostrate thrown
  8. Bring to the self-same part an ass-foal lewd
  9. Gifted with pizzle not a whit the worse.
  10. Then who is wise beware of working ill,
  11. Knowing so much of pego waits him here.
  1. Bacchus often is wont with a moderate bunch to be sated,
  2. When the deep brim-full vats hardly the must shall contain;
  3. So when the threshing-floors all fail for the plentiful harvest
  4. Ceres' ringlets to crown only one garland we bring.
  5. Thou too, a minor god, example borrow from the major--
  6. Though few apples we give, take thou our gift in good part.
  1. E, D, an thou write, conjoining the two with a hyphen,
  2. What middle D would bisect this shall be painted to view.
  1. Who could believe my words? 'Tis shame to confess that the sickle