Sunday, January 10, 2010

Poetry Sunday (01-10-10 edition)

This is one of my favorites by Petronius. There have been many translations of it. This particular translation is by Ben Jonson.


Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short

by Gaius Petronius

Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short;
And done, we straight repent us of the sport:
Let us not then rush blindly on unto it,
Like lustful beasts, that only know to do it:
For lust will languish, and that heat decay.
But thus, thus, keeping endless holiday,
Let us together closely lie and kiss,
There is no labour, nor no shame in this;
This hath pleased, doth please, and long will please; never
Can this decay, but is beginning ever.

2 comments:

Alaine said...

I just read your Freedom Gardening blog and it's great! My husband has planted a beautiful back yard vege garden so I sent him the link. He is trying to grow some of our own food as I have some health problems and he thought it might help. You just never know what's behind the world of books. Well I'm off to read more of your gardening blog, it's great and our weather here in Brisbane, Australia is quite similar to yours.

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