Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Asia: Vols. XXI–XXIII. 1876–79.
The Tomb of Anacreon
By Simonides (c. 556468 B.C.)Translated by H. H. Milman
M
Whose verdant boughs their graceful tendrils twine:
Still round this urn, with youth unfading, bloom,
The gentle slope of old Anacreon’s tomb.
For so the unmixed-goblet-loving sire,
Touching the livelong night his amorous lyre,
Even low in earth, upon his brows shall wear
The ruddy clustering crowns thy branches bear,
Where, though still fall the sweetest dews, the song
Distilled more sweetly from that old man’s tongue.