Social Commentaries
Book XII, Epigram 61 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
You are afi-aid, Ligurra, I should write verses on you, and some short and lively poem, and you long to be thought a man that justifies such fear. But vain is your fear, and your longing is vain. Against bulls Libyan lions rage, they are not hostile to butterflies. Look out, I advise you, if you are anxious to be read of, for some dark cellar's sottish poet, one who with coarse charcoal or crumbling chalk scrawls poems which people read in the jakes. Your brow is not one to be marked by my brand.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book XII, Epigram 61 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/1413/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book XII, Epigram 61 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/1413/.
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