Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. A chough, a caries, an eld-worn grave,
  2. By lapse of crowding centuries rotten grown,
  3. Who as a wetnurse haply may have fed
  4. Tithonus, Priam, Nestor, and perchance
  5. When they were little lads was agèd crone,
  6. Sues me for swiver she may never lack!
  7. How if she pray me to be girl again?
  8. Yet, if she's moneyed, she's again a girl.
  1. Whatever thief shall trick my faith may he
  2. Wither, far banisht from th' effeminate bum!
  3. Whatever damsel plucks with wanton hand
  4. This fruitage, never find she one to strum!
  1. Know, lest due warning be denied by thee,
  2. An thief thou come male whore shalt surely flee.
  1. Hadst thou as many of apples as offers of verses (Priapus!),
  2. Richer than Alcinous ancient of days were thy lot.
  1. Why, cultivator, vainly moan to me
  2. That I, a fruitful apple-tree whilom,
  3. For two autumnal seasons barren stand?
  4. Weighs me not down (as deemest thou) old age