Social Commentaries
Book II, Epigram 86 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
Because I do not pride myself on topsy-turvy verses, nor read backwards in obscene Sotadics; because nowhere does a Greekling echo answer you, nor does graceful Attis ° dictate to me galliambics, voluptuous and broken, I am not, Classicus, a bad poet after all. What if you bade Ladas unwillingly to mount the narrow ways of a springboard? 'Tis degrading to undertake difficult trifles; and foolish is the labour spent on puerilities. Let Palaemon write poems for the general throng; my delight is to please listeners few and choice.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book II, Epigram 86 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/533/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book II, Epigram 86 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/533/.
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