Living
Maxims of Theognis: Delighting myself in youth I
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
Delighting myself in youth I sport-and-sing: for, when I have lost my life, I shall lie long beneath the earth, like a voiceless stone; and shall quit the delightful light of the sun, and, though I be a man-of-worth, yet shall see nothing any more.
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: Delighting myself in youth I.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/214/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: Delighting myself in youth I.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/214/.
Read this poem with the Codex →