Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. 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
  9. Caused just complaining to the apple-tree;