Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Which fears nor hundred ages fully told
  2. Nor the decaying of long, drawn-out eld.
  3. Dread this (O evil one!) whoe'er thou be!
  4. For an thou injure with thy greedy hand
  5. The least of bunches by this vine-stock borne
  6. Shall spring (howe'er thou may oppose) for thee
  7. A fig-tree grafted from this cypress-stem.
  1. A robber famed for greed exceeding wonder
  2. (Eke a Cilician) would this garden plunder;
  3. Yet in its vasty space, Fabullus, naught
  4. Save a Priapus stood in marble wrought
  5. So the Cilician, who with hand sans pelf
  6. Scornèd departing, stole Priapus' self.
  1. Carved me no rustic boor his artless sickle a-plying:
  2. Here of the bailiff thou see'st noble and notable work;
  3. For that the wealthiest swain who owns the lands Caërétan
  4. (Hilarus) holds these hills sloping in sunniest folds.
  5. See with my well-shaped face how seem I not to be wooden,