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68. An I Rustical Seem To Have Spoken Somewh

68

Priapus

Rusticus indocte si quid dixisse videbor,

da veniam: libros non lego, poma lego.

sed rudis hic dominum totiens audire legentem

cogor Homereas edidicique notas.

ille vocat, quod nos 'psolen', 'psoloenta keraunon',

et quod nos culum, 'kouleon' ille vocat.

'merdaleon' certe nisi res non munda vocatur,

et pediconum mentula merdalea est.

An I rustical seem to have spoken somewhat unlearned,

Pardon me: apples I pluck, pluck I no matter of books;

Yet in my rudeness ok when hearing the dominie reading,

Stood I storing in mind much of Homerical lore.

'Psoleon' fain he calls what we 'Psoloenta' be calling;

What we 'Culum' name, 'Culeon' loves he to term;

'Smerdaleos' forsure designs what is nothing too cleanly

And is the Pedicon's yard rightly 'Smerdalea' hight.

If I, a rustic, shall seem to say anything unlearnedly, pardon me: I gather not knowledge from books, I gather apples. But, untaught, I have often listened to my master, who constantly reads here, and have learnt by heart the Homeric vocabulary. He calls "psolen" [the virile member], what we call "psoloenta". What we call "culum" [the fundament], he "culeon". And surely, unless an unclean thing be called "smerdalos" ["merde"], the mentule of a sodomist is "smerdalea".
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