Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Though I be agèd now, though head and chin
  2. Now show them hoary-hue'd with grizzling hair,
  3. Still can I perforate those caught by me,
  4. Tithonus, Priam, Nestor--every one.
  5. You see how mightily my rage ye rouse
  6. Who hem me ever with a bullfinch hedge
  7. Forbidding robbers from approaching me.
  8. This is to hurt while helping, this is but
  9. To scare the birdies from the birder's snare.
  10. The way is closèd nor prone-fallen thief
  11. Can with his backside expiate his crime.
  12. Thus I who erstwhile ever, ever and aye
  13. Buttocks of plundering wights was wont to cleave,
  14. For many a night and day in idlesse stand.
  15. I also, suffering pains enough and more,
  16. Flow off in semen and a lecher whiles
  17. Unlive my life-tide. Who could ever think
  18. From lute the lutanist should cut him clear?
  19. But you, ereeld's marasmus do me dead,
  20. Desist, I pray you from vain diligence,