Living
Maxims of Theognis: I desire not to lie
Translated by Rev. J. Banks (Bohn, 1856) · From Hesiod, Callimachus and Theognis (Bohn, 1856)
I desire not to lie in regal couch when dead; but be mine some good thing whilst I am yet alive. Prickles, I ween, to a dead man are a like couch to embroidered carpets; the wood is either hard or soft: matters not.
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: I desire not to lie.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/354/.
Chicago
Megara, Theognis of. “Maxims of Theognis: I desire not to lie.” Translated by Rev. J. Banks. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/theognis/354/.
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