Men only want one thing
...No, my dear friend,
I'm overcome by crippling desire.
...
'...holding entirely off...
If you can't wait and your desire is urgent,
there's somebody else at our house
now longing for a man,
a lovely slender girl, there's nothing wrong
(if I'm any judge) with her looks.
Why not make friends with her?'
That's what she said, and here's how I replied:
'Daughter of Amphimedo,
that lady fine and true
whom now the mouldy earth has taken in,
the love-goddess offers young men
a range of joys besides
the sacrament, and one of them will serve.
We'll talk of all this, you and I,
at leisure, when...
...grows dark, and may God be our aid.
I'll do it just as you say.
.....
But please, my dear, don't grudge it if I go
under the arch, through the gates;
I'll dock at the grass borders,
be sure of that. Now as for Neoboule,
someone else have her. Dear me,
she's past ripe, twice your age;
her girlhood's flower has shed its petals, lost
all the enchantment it had.
She never got enough;
she's proved her ...'s measure, crazy woman.
keep her away - for the crows!
I pray no friend of mine
would have me marry somebody like her
and give all the neighbours a laugh.
No you're the one I want.
You're not untrustworthy, you're not two-faced,
but she's so precipitate, she
makes friends with crowds of men.
I don't want babies blind and premature
like the proverbial bitch,
from showing too much haste.'
That's what I said; and then I took the girl,
and laying her down in the flowers,
with my soft-textured cloak
I covered her; my arm cradled her neck,
while she in fear like a fawn
gave up the attempt to run.
Gently I touched her breasts where the young flesh
peeped from the edge of her dress,
her ripeness newly come,
and then, caressing all her lovely form,
I shot my hot energy off,
just brushing golden hairs.
spoken
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translator West page 3-4