Venice masks

Monday, 29 May 2017

Roses - Publius Annius Florus

What roses have I seen come with the morn!
Scarce born they were, yet not alike in age:
One showed the breast-like buds that hid the flower,
One shot its purple crest from swelling heart,
A third had opened full its rounded cup,
A fourth was bright with well-grown naked bloom,
One rears its head, while one untwines its coil:
So, while their maiden virtue's chastely garbed,
At dawn pull roses fresh: maids soon grow old.

Publius Annius Florus (c.74 - ?) Egypt
Translated by J. Wight Duff and Arnold M. Duff
Source: Florus, Loeb Classical Library, 1934 (revised 1935)

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