Priapeia

Priaepia

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

  1. Who ever spied thee, Love! wilfully hiding thy torch?
  2. Ne'er be reproach to myself this mentule ever uncover'd:
  3. Lacking my missile's defence I shall be wholly unarm'd.
  1. Why laugh such laughter, O most silly maid?
  2. My form Praxiteles nor Scopas hewed;
  3. To me no Phidian handwork finish gave;
  4. But me a bailiff hacked from shapeless log,
  5. And quoth my maker, 'Thou Priapus be!'
  6. Yet on me gazing forthright gigglest thou
  7. And holdest funny matter to deride
  8. The pillar perking from the groin of me.
  1. 'Ware of my catching! If caught, with rod I never will harm thee
  2. Nor to thee deal sore wound using my sickle that curves.
  3. Pierced with a foot-long pole thy skin shall be stretched in such fashion
  4. Thou shalt be fain to believe ne'er had a wrinkle thine arse.