Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. A she (than Hector's parent longer aged,
  2. Sister to Cumae's Sibyl seemeth me;
  3. Equal to thee whom, to his home returned,
  4. Theseus found lying in the fosse a-cold!)
  5. Hither with tottering gait is wont to come;
  6. And, wrinkled hands upraising to the stars,
  7. Begs that she'll never fail a yard to find;
  8. And, as yester'een she prayed ere daylight fled
  9. One of three teeth she happened out to crache.
  10. 'Bear it afar (cried I) and let it lurk
  11. Beneath thy tattered robe and tawny stole;
  12. (Fen as 'tis ever wont); and dread the fight
  13. Of meagre jaws which ope with such a gape--
  14. By hairy nostrils capped and eminent nose--
  15. Thou hadst deemed to see an Epicurean yawn.'