Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. 'Let the rude spear in me work with its natural wont!'
  1. Whenas the Rigid God espied a wight
  2. Crisping his head with curling-tongs aglow
  3. That he be likest to a Moorish maid,
  4. 'Ho thou! (cried he) we tell thee, catamite;
  5. However much thou toast and curl thyself
  6. Is then a damsel more of worth, I ask,
  7. Than are the hairy honours of thy yard?'
  1. Ho girl! no whiter-skinned than Moorish man
  2. Yet, Oh! than every pathic softer far;
  3. Squatter than Pygmey fearful of the crane;
  4. Harsher and hairier than pelt of bear;
  5. Looser than Median or than Indian hose;
  6. Remain as please thee or at will depart.
  7. For, though full ready seem I, yet I want
  8. Of rockets half-score bundles at the least,
  9. Ere I that ditch-like groin can scrub and crush
  10. The swarming wormlets of thy privy parts.
  1. Who of you people here shall come to sup
  2. Yet bring no verses suited to my taste;