Venice masks

Friday 22 June 2018

Love the runaway - Meleager of Gadara

I make hue and cry after wild Love;
for now, even now in the morning dusk,
he flew away from his bed and was gone.
This boy is full of sweet tears,
ever talking, swift, fearless, sly-laughing,
winged on the back, and carries a quiver.
But whose son he is I may not say,
for Heaven denies having borne this ruffler,
and so Earth and so Sea.
Everywhere and by all he is hated;
but look you to it
lest haply even now he is laying more springes for souls.
Yet—there he is, see! about his lurking-place;
I see thee well, my archer,
ambushed in Zenophile's eyes.

Meleager of Gadara (1st century BC) Jordan
Translated by J. W. Mackail
Source: Select epigrams from the Greek Anthology edited with a revised text, translation, and notes, by J. W. Mackail, Longmans, Green, and Co., 1890

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