Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Grant that a restless swelling rouse my nerve
  2. Lustful a-sudden and upraise it high,
  3. Nor cease excite it and excite it more
  4. Till wanton Venus burst my weakened side.
  1. Neither of garden nor of blessèd vine
  2. But of a little holt (Priapus!) guard,
  3. Wherein wast born and may'st be born again;
  4. I warn thee plundering hand alway repel
  5. And keep the fuel for thy master's fire--
  6. An this be wanting, mind! of wood thou art.
  1. Roses in spring in the autumn fruits and in summer they bring me
  2. Wheat-ears, while to my mind winter is horrible pest;
  3. For that the cold I dread lest I being god made of timber
  4. End me as fuel for fire chopped by those ignorant boors.
  1. I thuswise fashioned I by rustic art
  2. And from dried poplar-trunk (O traveller!) hewn,
  3. This fieldlet, leftwards as thy glances fall,
  4. And my lord's cottage with his pauper garth
  5. Protect, repelling thieves' rapacious hands.
  6. In spring with vari-coloured wreaths I'm crown'd,