Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  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,
  7. In fervid summer with the glowing grain,
  8. Then with green vine-shoot and the luscious bunch,
  9. And glaucous olive-tree in bitter cold.
  10. The dainty she-goat from my pasture bears
  11. Her milk-distended udders to the town:
  12. Out of my sheep-cotes ta'en the fatted lamb
  13. Sends home with silver right-hand heavily charged;
  14. And, while its mother lows, the tender calf
  15. Before the temples of the Gods must bleed.
  16. Hence of such Godhead (traveller!), stand in awe;
  17. Best it befits thee off to keep thy hands.
  18. Thy cross is ready, shaped as artless yard;
  19. 'I'm willing 'faith' (thou say'st) but 'faith here comes
  20. The boor and plucking forth with bended arm