Social Commentaries
Book I, Epigram 35 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
That I write verses little squeamish, and not such as a schoolmaster would dictate in school, is your complaint, Cornelius; but these poems cannot please, any more than husbands can please their wives, without amorousness. What if you bade me indite a marriage song not in the words of a marriage song? Who brings garments into Flora's festival, and permits prostitutes the modesty of the stole? This is the rule assigned to jocular poems, to be unable to please unless they are prurient. Wherefore lay aside your squeamishness, and spare my pleasantries and my jokes, I beg you, and do not seek to castrate my poems. Than a Priapus as Cybele's priest nothing is more disgusting.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book I, Epigram 35 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/371/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book I, Epigram 35 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/371/.
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