Priapeia
Priaepia
by divers poets in English verse and prose. Translated by Sir Richard Burton and Leonard C. Smithers
- And naught this haughty sprite shall 'vail thee when
- Plunging thine errant head in plashing mire.
- Why lies it lazy? Doth its sloth displease thee?
- For once thou mayest weaken it unavenged;
- But when that golden boy again shall come,
- Soon as his patter on the path shalt hear,
- Grant that a restless swelling rouse my nerve
- Lustful a-sudden and upraise it high,
- Nor cease excite it and excite it more
- Till wanton Venus burst my weakened side.
- Neither of garden nor of blessèd vine
- But of a little holt (Priapus!) guard,
- Wherein wast born and may'st be born again;
- I warn thee plundering hand alway repel
- And keep the fuel for thy master's fire--
- An this be wanting, mind! of wood thou art.
- Roses in spring in the autumn fruits and in summer they bring me
- Wheat-ears, while to my mind winter is horrible pest;
- For that the cold I dread lest I being god made of timber
- End me as fuel for fire chopped by those ignorant boors.