Theognis Poems

My heart, display toward all your friends a changeful character,
Adding into it the disposition that each one has.
Adopt the disposition of the octopus, crafty in its convolutions, which takes on
The appearance of whatever rock it has dealings with.
...

Of all things it is poverty that most subdues a noble man,
More even than hoary old age, Kyrnos, or fever;
Indeed, to avoid it one should even throw oneself into the sea's
Deep gulfs, Kyrnos, or off sheer cliffs.
...

Kyrnos, as I work my craft let a seal be set upon
These words of mine, and they will never be stolen unremarked,
Nor will anyone change the good that is there to something worse;
And this is what everyone will say: 'These are the lines of Theognis,
...

My boy, as long as your cheeks and chin are smooth, I shall never
Cease to praise you, not even if I am fated to die.
For you, the giver, it is still honorable, and for me as lover it is not shameful
To ask. But I beseech you, in the name of my parents:
...

Of those now here with us, do not detain anyone who is unwilling to remain,
Nor show the door to anyone who does not wish to go,
Nor wake anyone who is sleeping, Simonides, should one of us,
Well fortified by wine, be gripped by gentle slumber;
...

Alas, I am in love with a soft-skinned boy, who to all my friends
Reveals that this is true, though he does so against my will.
I shall endure without concealment the many outrages done in my despite,
For not ill-favored is the boy whose conquest I am shown to be.
...