Living
Maxims of Theognis: Do not caress me in
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
Do not caress me in words, and keep your mind and, heart elsewhere, if you love me and if there dwells in you a faithful mind. Either love me, cherishing a sincere mind, or dis-own and hate me, having raised a quarrel openly. But he who, with one tongue, has yet his mind at variance, this man, Cyrnus, is a formidable comrade, better as a foe than when a friend.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Codex Note
Literal prose translation by the Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856), printed as prose: the plain-sense companion to Frere’s verse version. Banks’s hyphenated compounds are his own.
Cite this poem
MLA
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Do not caress me in.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/122/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Do not caress me in.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/122/.
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