[The Shades of the Underworld ask Adonis, “What was the most beautiful thing you left behind?” He answers:]
Most beautiful of things I leave is sunlight.
Then come glazing stars and the moon’s face.
Then ripe cucumbers and apples and pears.
From: Barnstone, Aliki and Barnstone, Willis (eds.), A Book of Women Poets from Antiquity to Now, 1980, Schocken Books: New York, p. 43.
Date: 5th century BCE (original); 1980 (translation)
By: Praxilla (5th century BCE)
Translated by: Willis Barnstone (1927- )
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