Puerilities: Erotic Epigrams of ""The Greek Anthology""

""The ass is the metrical equivalent/ Of cash I discovered once by accident,"" wrote doggerel-master Strato of Sardis almost 2,000 years ago yet the wry truth of his equation still pertains. This and other such insights are freshly translated by poet and former Poetry editor Daryl Hine (Arondissements) in Purilities: Erotic Epigrams of The Greek Anthology, originally compiled in the court of Hadrian. The 258 pithy and dirty poems of the Anthology's Book XII are presented with Greek en face, and Hine's turns of phrase should turn a few heads: ""I give back love for love and hate for hate,"" wrote one anonymous poet, ""completely ignorant of neither state."" ( June)