Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Howe'er thou 'plain, no more shall tender boy
  2. Ope to thy bidding, nor on groaning bed
  3. His mobile buttocks writhe with aiding art:
  4. Nor shall the wanton damsel's legier hand
  5. Stroke thee, or rub on thee her lubric thigh.
  6. A two-fanged mistress, Romulus old remembering,
  7. Awaits thee; middlemost whose sable groin
  8. And hide time-loosened thou with coynte-rime bewrayed
  9. And hung in cobwebs fain shalt block the way.
  10. Such prize is thine who thrice and four times shalt
  11. Engulf thy lecherous head in fosse profound.
  12. Though sick or languid lie thou, still thou must
  13. Rasp her till wretched, wretched thou shalt fill
  14. Thrice or e'en fourfold times her cavernous gape;
  15. And naught this haughty sprite shall 'vail thee when
  16. Plunging thine errant head in plashing mire.
  17. Why lies it lazy? Doth its sloth displease thee?
  18. For once thou mayest weaken it unavenged;
  19. But when that golden boy again shall come,
  20. Soon as his patter on the path shalt hear,