Persius, Introductory Poem
Translated by Lewis Evans (1889)
Formatted by C. Chinn (2008)

	I HAVE neither steeped my lips in the fountain of the Horse, 
	nor do I remember to have dreamt on the double-peaked 
	Parnassus, that so I might on a sudden come forth a poet. 
	The nymphs of Helicon, and pale Pirene, 
5	I resign to those around whose statues the clinging ivy 
	twines. I myself, half a clown, bring my verses as 
	a contribution to the inspired effusions of the poets. 
	Who made the parrot so ready with his salutation, 
	and taught magpies to emulate our words?—
10	That which is the master of all art, the bounteous giver of genius—
	the belly: that artist that trains them to copy sounds that nature has denied them. 
	But if the hope of deceitful money shall have shone forth, 
	you may believe that ravens turned poets, and magpies poetesses, 
	give vent to strains of Pegaseian nectar.