Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Nor am I floggèd by the hailstone hard,
  2. Nor yet my burgeon-gems a-budding new
  3. Are burnt by rigours of a wintry spring:
  4. Neither the winds nor rains nor yet the droughts
  5. Caused just complaining to the apple-tree;
  6. Nor me the starling or the robber 'Daw
  7. Or crow as crone old-grown or watery goose
  8. Or thirsty raven e'er endamagèd.
  9. No! but from bearing scribblers' rubbish verse
  10. On labouring branches comes mine every woe.
  1. Sleep, O ye watchdogs! safe, while aid in guarding the garden
  2. Lover his leman beloved, Seirius Erigone.
  1. 'Tis not enough, my friends, I set my seat
  2. Where earth gapes chinky under Canicule,
  3. Ever enduring thirsty summer's drought.
  4. 'Tis not enough the showers flow down my breast
  5. And beat the hail-storms on my naked hair,
  6. With beard fast frozen, rigid by the rime.
  7. 'Tis not enough that days in labour spent
  8. Sleepless I lengthen through the nights as long.