T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Accompt
By Anacreon (582–485 B.C.)(From the Odes; translated by Thomas Stanley, 1651) |
IF thou dost the number know | |
| Of the leaves on every bough, | |
| If thou can’st the reckoning keep | |
| Of the sands within the deep; | |
| Thee of all men will I take, | 5 |
| And my Love’s accomptant make. | |
| Of Athenians first a score | |
| Set me down; then fifteen more; | |
| Add a regiment to these | |
| Of Corinthian mistresses, | 10 |
| For the most renown’d for fair | |
| In Achæa sojourn there; | |
| Next our Lesbian Beauties tell; | |
| Those that in Ionia dwell; | |
| Those of Rhodes and Caria count; | 15 |
| To two thousand they amount, | |
| Wonder’st thou I love so many? | |
| ’Las of Syria we not any, | |
| Egypt yet, nor Crete have told, | |
| Where his orgies Love doth hold. | 20 |
| What to those then wilt thou say | |
| Which in eastern Bactria, | |
| Or the western Gades remain? | |
| But give o’er, thou toil’st in vain; | |
| For the sum which thou dost seek | 25 |
| Puzzles all arithmetic. | |