T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
To Lydia
By Cornelius Gallus (69?26 B.C.)(Attributed; translated by Sir Charles Elton) |
LYDIA! girl of prettiest mien, | |
And fairest skin, that e’er were seen: | |
Lilies, cream, thy cheeks disclose; | |
The ruddy and the milky rose; | |
Smooth thy limbs as ivory shine, | 5 |
Burnished from the Indic mine. | |
Oh, sweet girl! those ringlets spread, | |
Long and loose, from all thy head; | |
Glistening like gold in yellow light | |
O’er thy falling shoulders white. | 10 |
Show, sweet girl! thy starry eyes, | |
And black-bent brows that arching rise: | |
Show, sweet girl! thy rose-bloom cheeks, | |
Which Tyre’s vermillion scarlet streaks: | |
Drop those pouting lips to mine, | 15 |
Those ripe, those coral lips of thine. | |
Give me, soft, a velvet kiss | |
Dovelike glued in searching bliss: | |
You suck my breath! oh Heaven! remove | |
Your lips—I faint—my sweetest love! | 20 |
Your kisses—hold! they pierce my heart: | |
I feel thee in each vital part: | |
Hold—thou wicked creature! why | |
Suck my life’s blood, thus cruelly? | |
Hide those breasts, that rise and fall, | 25 |
Those twinned apples, round and small; | |
Full with balmy juices flowing, | |
Now just budding, heaving, growing; | |
Breathing from their broadened zone | |
Opening sweets of cinnamon. | 30 |
Delicacies round thee rise: | |
Hide those globes—they wound mine eyes | |
With their white and dazzling glow, | |
With their luxury of snow! | |
Cruel! see you not I languish, | 35 |
Thrilling with ecstatic anguish? | |
Do you leave me; leave me lying, | |
Almost fainting, almost dying? | |