C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
The Grasshopper
By Anacreon (582–485 B.C.)
H
In happiness compared to thee?
Fed with nourishment divine,
The dewy Morning’s gentle wine!
Nature waits upon thee still,
And thy verdant cup does fill;
’Tis filled wherever thou dost tread,
Nature’s self’s thy Ganymede.
Thou dost drink, and dance, and sing;
Happier than the happiest king!
All the fields which thou dost see,
All the plants, belong to thee;
All that summer hours produce,
Fertile made with early juice.
Man for thee does sow and plow;
Farmer he, and landlord thou!
Thou dost innocently joy;
Nor does thy luxury destroy;
The shepherd gladly heareth thee,
More harmonious than he.
Thee country hinds with gladness hear,
Prophet of the ripened year!
Thee Phœbus loves, and does inspire;
Phœbus is himself thy sire.
To thee, of all things upon Earth,
Life’s no longer than thy mirth.
Happy insect, happy thou!
Dost neither age nor winter know;
But, when thou’st drunk, and danced, and sung
Thy fill, the flowery leaves among,
(Voluptuous, and wise withal,
Epicurean animal!)
Sated with thy summer feast,
Thou retir’st to endless rest.