Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Accursèd Penis! Oh, by whom my pains
  2. Shall with sore righteous penalty be paid?
  3. Howe'er thou 'plain, no more shall tender boy
  4. Ope to thy bidding, nor on groaning bed
  5. His mobile buttocks writhe with aiding art:
  6. Nor shall the wanton damsel's legier hand
  7. Stroke thee, or rub on thee her lubric thigh.
  8. A two-fanged mistress, Romulus old remembering,
  9. Awaits thee; middlemost whose sable groin
  10. And hide time-loosened thou with coynte-rime bewrayed
  11. And hung in cobwebs fain shalt block the way.
  12. Such prize is thine who thrice and four times shalt
  13. Engulf thy lecherous head in fosse profound.
  14. Though sick or languid lie thou, still thou must
  15. Rasp her till wretched, wretched thou shalt fill
  16. Thrice or e'en fourfold times her cavernous gape;
  17. And naught this haughty sprite shall 'vail thee when
  18. Plunging thine errant head in plashing mire.