Come Close Read online

  ‘I shall never, ever join you again.’

  Hesperus, you are

  The most fetching star.

  What Dawn flings afield

  You bring back together –

  Sheep to the fold, goats to the pen,

  And the child to his mother again.

  Nightingale,

  All you sing

  Is desire;

  You are the crier

  Of coming spring.

  Because once on a time you were

  Young, sing of what is taking place,

  Talk to us for a spell, confer

  Your special grace.

  For we march to a wedding – yes,

  You know it well. So pack the maids off

  Quickly, and may the gods possess …

  Groomsmen, kings with bastions

  In strong positions,

  Keep this bride

  Well fortified.

  It would take seven fathoms to span

  The feet of the doorkeeper (the best man);

  His sandals are five cows’ worth of leather

  And ten shoemakers stitched them together.

  ‘What do you resemble, dear husband-to-be?’

  ‘You resemble a supple seedling, a green tree.’

  Carpenters, raise the rafter-beam

  (For Hymen’s wedding hymn)

  A little higher to make room

  (For Hymen’s wedding hymn)

  Because here comes the groom –

  An Ares more imposing than

  A giant, a terribly big man.

  Blest bridegroom, this day of matrimony,

  Just as you wished it, has come true:

  The bride is whom you wished for …

  ‘You

  Move gracefully; your eyes are honey;

  Charm was showered on your radiant face –

  Yes, Aphrodite granted you outstanding praise.’

  The ambrosial mixture

  Ready in the mixing bowl,

  Hermes went round with a pitcher

  And served the gods. When all

  Had tipped their goblets and poured offerings,

  They prayed that the groom suffer only the good things.

  Because there is no other girl than she,

  Bridegroom – a child still, of such quality.

  Star clusters near the fair moon dim

  Their shapely shimmering whenever

  She rises, lucent to the brim

  And flowing over.

  And may the maidens all night long

  Celebrate your shared love in song

  And the bride’s bosom,

  A violet-blossom.

  Get up, now! Rouse that gang of fellows –

  Your boys – and we shall sleep as well as

  The bird that intones

  Piercing moans.

  THE WISDOM OF SAPPHO

  The gorgeous man presents a gorgeous view;

  The good man will in time be gorgeous, too.

  Wealth without real worthiness

  Is no good for the neighbourhood;

  But their proper mixture is

  The summit of beatitude.

  Neither the honey nor the bee

  For me …

  ‘I want to tell you something but good taste

  Restrains me.’

  ‘If you wanted to express

  Some noble or gorgeous thought – that is, unless

  Your tongue were keen to utter in hot haste

  Some shameful slur, “good taste” would not have dressed

  Your face in red, no, you would have professed

  Whatever you would say upfront and straightaway.’

  Either I have slipped out of your head

  Or you adore some fellow more, instead.

  I don’t know what the right course is;

  Twofold are my purposes.

  I declare

  That later on,

  Even in an age unlike our own,

  Someone will remember who we are.

  BOCCACCIO · Mrs Rosie and the Priest

  GERARD MANLEY HOPKINS · As kingfishers catch fire

  The Saga of Gunnlaug Serpent-tongue

  THOMAS DE QUINCEY · On Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts

  FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE · Aphorisms on Love and Hate

  JOHN RUSKIN · Traffic

  PU SONGLING · Wailing Ghosts

  JONATHAN SWIFT · A Modest Proposal

  Three Tang Dynasty Poets

  WALT WHITMAN · On the Beach at Night Alone

  KENKŌ · A Cup of Sake Beneath the Cherry Trees

  BALTASAR GRACIÁN · How to Use Your Enemies

  JOHN KEATS · The Eve of St Agnes

  THOMAS HARDY · Woman much missed

  GUY DE MAUPASSANT · Femme Fatale

  MARCO POLO · Travels in the Land of Serpents and Pearls

  SUETONIUS · Caligula

  APOLLONIUS OF RHODES · Jason and Medea

  ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON · Olalla

  KARL MARX AND FRIEDRICH ENGELS · The Communist Manifesto

  PETRONIUS · Trimalchio’s Feast

  JOHANN PETER HEBEL · How a Ghastly Story Was Brought to Light by a Common or Garden Butcher’s Dog

  HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN · The Tinder Box

  RUDYARD KIPLING · The Gate of the Hundred Sorrows

  DANTE · Circles of Hell

  HENRY MAYHEW · Of Street Piemen

  HAFEZ · The nightingales are drunk

  GEOFFREY CHAUCER · The Wife of Bath

  MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE · How We Weep and Laugh at the Same Thing

  THOMAS NASHE · The Terrors of the Night

  EDGAR ALLAN POE · The Tell-Tale Heart

  MARY KINGSLEY · A Hippo Banquet

  JANE AUSTEN · The Beautifull Cassandra

  ANTON CHEKHOV · Gooseberries

  SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE · Well, they are gone, and here must I remain

  JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE · Sketchy, Doubtful, Incomplete Jottings

  CHARLES DICKENS · The Great Winglebury Duel

  HERMAN MELVILLE · The Maldive Shark

  ELIZABETH GASKELL · The Old Nurse’s Story

  NIKOLAY LESKOV · The Steel Flea

  HONORÉ DE BALZAC · The Atheist’s Mass

  CHARLOTTE PERKINS GILMAN · The Yellow Wall-Paper

  C.P. CAVAFY · Remember, Body …

  FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY · The Meek One

  GUSTAVE FLAUBERT · A Simple Heart

  NIKOLAI GOGOL · The Nose

  SAMUEL PEPYS · The Great Fire of London

  EDITH WHARTON · The Reckoning

  HENRY JAMES · The Figure in the Carpet

  WILFRED OWEN · Anthem For Doomed Youth

  WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART · My Dearest Father

  PLATO · Socrates’ Defence

  CHRISTINA ROSSETTI · Goblin Market

  Sindbad the Sailor

  SOPHOCLES · Antigone

  RYŪNOSUKE AKUTAGAWA · The Life of a Stupid Man

  LEO TOLSTOY · How Much Land Does A Man Need?

  GIORGIO VASARI · Leonardo da Vinci

  OSCAR WILDE · Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime

  SHEN FU · The Old Man of the Moon

  AESOP · The Dolphins, the Whales and the Gudgeon

  MATSUO BASHŌ · Lips too Chilled

  EMILY BRONTË · The Night is Darkening Round Me

  JOSEPH CONRAD · To-morrow

  RICHARD HAKLUYT · The Voyage of Sir Francis Drake Around the Whole Globe

  KATE CHOPIN · A Pair of Silk Stockings

  CHARLES DARWIN · It was snowing butterflies

  BROTHERS GRIMM · The Robber Bridegroom

  CATULLUS · I Hate and I Love

  HOMER · Circe and the Cyclops

  D. H. LAWRENCE · Il Duro

  KATHERINE MANSFIELD · Miss Brill

  OVID · The Fall of Icarus

  SAPPHO · Come Close

  IVAN TURGENEV · Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands

  VIRGIL · O Cruel Alexi
s

  H. G. WELLS · A Slip under the Microscope

  HERODOTUS · The Madness of Cambyses

  Speaking of Siva

  The Dhammapada

  LITTLEBLACKCLASSICS.COM

  THE BEGINNING

  Let the conversation begin...

  Follow the Penguin Twitter.com@penguinukbooks

  Keep up-to-date with all our stories YouTube.com/penguinbooks

  Pin ‘Penguin Books’ to your Pinterest

  Like ‘Penguin Books’ on Facebook.com/penguinbooks

  Listen to Penguin at SoundCloud.com/penguin-books

  Find out more about the author and

  discover more stories like this at Penguin.co.uk

  PENGUIN CLASSICS

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Ireland, 25 St Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd)

  Penguin Group (Australia), 707 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3008, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd)

  Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi – 110 017, India

  Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, Block D, Rosebank Office Park, 181 Jan Smuts Avenue, Parktown North, Gauteng 2193, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  www.penguin.com

  This selection published in Penguin Classics 2015

  Translation copyright © Aaron Poochigian, 2009

  The moral right of the translator has been asserted

  All rights reserved

  ISBN: 978-0-141-39870-9