Transferam epigrammata Latina pro libellis collatoris

Chuffery abounding. Today's mail brought a contributor's copy of Rhymes for Adults, a chapbook anthology edited by Mary Alexandra Agner. A garland of some of the best young formalists of today, including A.E. Stallings,¹ Peg Duthie, and Mike Snider. It's got sonnets of workplace seduction and existential depression, ballads about grown children living at home and the love-lives of endangered species, even a ballade with engineers watching a Hooters photo shoot. A sharp collection of strong, witty poetry.

My contribution is translations of seven dirty Latin epigrams from the Priapea:

Why look, you eager girls, with eyes askance?
   My prick does not stand hard and tall, but loose.
But though I have a lifeless wooden lance,
   Give me your altar—then I'll be of use.²

To give one example. Classical smut, replete with talking ithyphallic statues, blushing virgins, lusty matrons, and a justifiably unhappy apple tree.

You can purchase a copy here -- just $5 each, a tasty meal of a poetic deal.


1. I'm trying not to fanboy over being in a chapbook with A.E. Stallings. Is there any way to squee in a professional manner?

2. Obliquis quid me, pathicae, spectatis ocellis? / non stat in inguinibus mentula tenta meis. / quae tamen exanimis nunc est et inutile lignum, / utilis haec, aram si dederitis, erit. (Buecheler-Heraeus #73)

---L.

Transferam epigrammata Latina pro libellis collatoris

Chuffery abounding. Today's mail brought a contributor's copy of Rhymes for Adults, a chapbook anthology edited by Mary Alexandra Agner. A garland of some of the best young formalists of today, including A.E. Stallings,¹ Peg Duthie, and Mike Snider. It's got sonnets of workplace seduction and existential depression, ballads about grown children living at home and the love-lives of endangered species, even a ballade with engineers watching a Hooters photo shoot. A sharp collection of strong, witty poetry.

My contribution is translations of seven dirty Latin epigrams from the Priapea:

Why look, you eager girls, with eyes askance?
   My prick does not stand hard and tall, but loose.
But though I have a lifeless wooden lance,
   Give me your altar—then I'll be of use.²

To give one example. Classical smut, replete with talking ithyphallic statues, blushing virgins, lusty matrons, and a justifiably unhappy apple tree.

You can purchase a copy here -- just $5 each, a tasty meal of a poetic deal.


1. I'm trying not to fanboy over being in a chapbook with A.E. Stallings. Is there any way to squee in a professional manner?

2. Obliquis quid me, pathicae, spectatis ocellis? / non stat in inguinibus mentula tenta meis. / quae tamen exanimis nunc est et inutile lignum, / utilis haec, aram si dederitis, erit. (Buecheler-Heraeus #73)

---L.