Love's prisoner | Did I not cry aloud to thee, O soul

by Meleager of Gadara (flourished 1st century BCE)

Translation by John (or Jack) William Mackail (1859 - 1945)

οὔ σοι ταῦτ᾽ ἐβόων, ψυχή

Language: Greek (Ελληνικά)

οὔ σοι ταῦτ᾽ ἐβόων, ψυχή;
ναὶ Κύπριν, ἁλώσει,
ὦ δύσερως, ἰξῷ πυκνὰ προσιπταμένη:
οὐκ
ἐβόων; εἷλέν σε πάγη. τί μάτην ἐνὶ δεσμοῖς
σπαίρεις; αὐτὸς Ἔρως τὰ πτερά σου δέδεκεν,
καὶ ς1᾽ ἐπὶ πῦρ ἔστησε, μύροις δ᾽ ἔρρανε λιπόπνουν,
δῶκε δὲ διψώσῃ δάκρυα θερμὰ πιεῖν

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Note on Transliterations

Text Authorship:

by Meleager of Gadara (flourished 1st century BCE), no title, Epigram 12.132 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

[ None yet in the database ]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in English, a translation by John (or Jack) William Mackail (1859 - 1945) , "Love's prisoner" ; composed by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2023-07-25
Line count: 8
Word count: 44

Love's prisoner

Language: English after the Greek (Ελληνικά)

Did I not cry aloud to thee, O soul, 
"Yes, by the Cyprian, thou wilt be caught, poor lover, 
if thou flutterest so often near the lime-twigs"? 
did I not cry aloud? and the snare has taken thee. 
Why dost thou gasp vainly in the toils? 
Love himself has bound thy wings and set thee on the fire, 
and sprinkled thee to swooning with perfumes,
and given thee in thy thirst hot tears to drink.

Confirmed with J. W. Mackail, Select Epigrams from the Greek Anthology, from Project Gutenberg.

Text Authorship:

by John (or Jack) William Mackail (1859 - 1945), "Love's prisoner" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Based on:

a text in Greek (Ελληνικά) by Meleager of Gadara (flourished 1st century BCE), no title, Epigram 12.132
- Go to the text page.

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Granville Ransome Bantock, Sir (1868 - 1946), "Love's prisoner", 1922 [ voice and harp or lyre ], from The Garland of Meleager, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2021-04-20
Line count: 8
Word count: 75