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Hylas Proposes to Not Get Married and A Drinking Song (songs)

-W.D. Snodgrass, translator

What could coax me into marriage?—
    You get headaches then go broke!
First, it’s servants; then a carriage;
    Women are the strangest folk.
If she’s rich, she’d be the master;
    If she’s poor, who’d buy the bread?
Young, she’d tempt men toward disaster;
    Old, I might as well be dead.

Never take me for some friar
    Who’s been gelded, cowled and cowed;
With some filly I desire,
    If she’s not too stiff and proud,
I’ll soon take her someplace private
    With the lure of honeyed words;
Just one guess and you’ll arrive at
    What might happen afterwards.

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This blessed day
    I’ve come to stay
Where friends can drown their sorrow;
    Now I believe
    I’ll never leave:
I’ll be right here tomorrow.
    Landlord, I vow
    If you’ll allow
I’ll act out all that I’m feeling;
    To you, my host,
    I raise this toast,
Hoisting my glass to the ceiling.

    With wine and sack
    Troubles stand back,
Leaving us bright and jolly;
    Good wine imparts
    To minds and hearts
Solace from melancholy,
    Then she displays
    Our soul’s deep base,
Makes princes of born beggars;
    Once sure we’re good,
    We thirst for blood;
Soon we’re all drawing our daggers.