BEWAIL not much, my parents, me,
the prey
Of ruthless Ades, and sepulchered here
An infant, in my fifth scarce finished year,
He found all sportive, innocent, and gay,
Your young Callimachus; and if I knew
Not many joys, my griefs were also few.
IN Gnidus born, the consort I became
Of Euphron. Aretimias was my name,
His bed I shared, nor proved a barren bride,
But bore two children at a birth, and died.
One child I leave to solace and uphold
Euphron hereafter, when infirm and old ;
And one, for his remembrance sake, I bear
To Pluto's realm, till he shall join me there.
ON AN UGLY FELLOW.
BEWARE, my friend, of chrystal brook,
Or fountain, lest that hideous hook,
Thy nose, thou chance to see.
Narcissus fate would then be thine,
And, self-detested, thou wouldst pine
As self-enamoured he.
ON THE ASTROLOGERS.
THE Astrologers did all alike presage
My uncle's dying in extreme old age;
One only disagreed. But he was wise,
And spoke not till he heard the funeral cries.
THEY call thee rich, I deem thee poor
Since, if thou darest not use thy store,
But savest it only for thine heirs,
The treasure is not thine, but theirs.
A MISER, traversing his house,
Espied, unusual there, a mouse,
And thus his uninvited guest,
Briskly inquisitive, addressed:
"Tell me, my dear, to what cause is it "I owe this unexpected visit?”
The mouse her host obliquely eyed, And, smiling, pleasantly replied, "Fear not, good fellow, for your hoard, "I come to lodge, and not to board."
ON PEDIGREE, FROM EPICHARMUS.
My mother, if thou love me, name no more
My noble birth. Sounding at every breath
My noble birth, thou killest me. Thither fly,
As to their only refuge, all from whom
Nature withholds all good besides: they boast
Their noble birth, conduct us to the tombs
Of their forefathers, and from age to age
Ascending, trumpet their illustrious race.
But whom hast thou beheld, or canst thou name,
Derived from no forefathers? Such a man
Lives not; for how could such be born at all?
And if it chance, that, native of a land
Fa distant, or in infancy deprived
Of all his kindred, one who cannot trace
His origin, exist, why deem him sprung
From baser ancestry than theirs who can ?
My mother, he whom nature at his birth
Endowed with virtuous qualities, although
An Æthiop and a slave, is nobly born.
TRANSLATED FROM THE LATIN OF
WHEN little more than boy in age,
I deemed myself almost a sage;
But now seem worthier to be stiled,
For ignorance-almost a child.
ON ONE IGNORANT AND ARROGANT.
THOU mayest of double ignorance boast,
Who knowest not that thou nothing knowest.
THAT thou mayest injure no man, dove-like be, And serpent-like, that none may injure thee!
TO A FRIEND IN DISTRESS.
I WISH thy lot, now bad, still worse, my friend, For when at worst, they say, things always mend!
THE works of ancient Bards divine,
Aulus, thou scorn'st to read;
And should posterity read thine,
It would be strange indeed!
SUNSET AND SUNRISE.
CONTEMPLATE, when the sun declines,
Thy death, with deep reflection;
And when again he rising shines,
Thy day of resurrection.
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