Venice masks

Tuesday 21 November 2017

Idyl I: The Stray Cupid - Moschus

As Cupid from his mother Venus strayed,
Thus crying him aloud the goddess said,
"If any one a wandering Cupid see,
The little fugitive belongs to me:
And if he tell what path the rogue pursues.
My kisses shall reward him for the news.
So plain, so numerous his marks, you '11 own
That e'en among a score he may be known.

"Bright clustering locks his lovely forehead grace.
But insolent expression marks his face ;
Though little are his hands, those hands can fling
Darts e'en to Acheron, the infernal king ;
Though bare his body, yet no art can find
A clue to trace the motions of his mind.
If you secure the wanderer, bring him bound,
Nor heed him, though he cry and stamp the ground."

Moschus (1st century BC) Greece
Translated by E. Pococke
Source: Greek poets in English verse, Selected by William Hyde Appleton, Houghton, Mifflin and Company, 1893

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