Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. When that invidious beard either soft cheek shall invade;
  2. What unto Jove gave he who, borne by the worshipful flyer,
  3. Mixes the gratefullest cups, ever his leman's delight;
  4. What on the primal night maid gives to her love-longing bridegroom
  5. Dreading ineptly the hurt dealt to a different part.
  6. Simpler far to declare in our Latin, Lend me thy buttocks;
  7. What shall I say to thee else? Dull's the Minerva of me.
  1. These tablets, sacred to the Rigid God,
  2. From Elephantis' obscene booklets drawn,
  3. Lalage offers and she prays thee try
  4. To ply the painted figures' every part.
  1. All the conditions (they say) Priapus made with the youngling
  2. Written in verses twain mortals hereunder can read:
  3. 'Whatso my garden contains to thee shall be lawfullest plunder