Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Whatever damsel plucks with wanton hand
  2. This fruitage, never find she one to strum!
  1. Know, lest due warning be denied by thee,
  2. An thief thou come male whore shalt surely flee.
  1. Hadst thou as many of apples as offers of verses (Priapus!),
  2. Richer than Alcinous ancient of days were thy lot.
  1. Why, cultivator, vainly moan to me
  2. That I, a fruitful apple-tree whilom,
  3. For two autumnal seasons barren stand?
  4. Weighs me not down (as deemest thou) old age
  5. Nor am I floggèd by the hailstone hard,
  6. Nor yet my burgeon-gems a-budding new
  7. Are burnt by rigours of a wintry spring:
  8. Neither the winds nor rains nor yet the droughts