C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Elegy on Lesbia’s Sparrow

Associated with the famous passion for Lesbia: Translation of Sir Theodore Martin

LOVES and Graces, mourn with me,

Mourn, fair youths, where’er ye be!

Dead my Lesbia’s sparrow is,

Sparrow that was all her bliss,

Than her very eyes more dear;

For he made her dainty cheer;

Knew her well, as any maid

Knows her mother; never strayed

From her bosom, but would go

Hopping round her to and fro,

And to her, and her alone,

Chirruped with such pretty tone.

Now he treads that gloomy track

Whence none ever may come back.

Out upon you, and your power,

Which all fairest things devour,

Orcus’s gloomy shades, that e’er

Ye took my bird that was so fair!

Ah, the pity of it! Thou

Poor bird, thy doing ’tis, that now

My loved one’s eyes are swollen and red,

With weeping for her darling dead.