The Grasshoppers by Stesichorus

Day after day, and year by year,
Chattering, chirping, far and near,
Some Grasshoppers a house surround
And din the owner with the sound.
These grasshoppers delight in trees
To chirp and chatter at their ease:
So quoth our friend, “You villain vermin!
This nuisance I’ll at once determine:
Your Trees I’ll fell, and then you may
In humbler quarters sing away!”

Hush, Locrians! or far and near
Dwellings and Trees may disappear;
Then Grasshoppers, ill-omen’d sound,
Shall sing to You,—and from the ground.

From: Stesichorus and Bromhead, Edward Ffrench (ed. and transl.), The Remains of Stesichorus, in an English Version, 1849,  p. 23.
(https://books.google.com.au/books?id=NkwEAAAAQAAJ)

Date: 6^th century BCE (original in Greek); 1849 (translation in English)

By: Stesichorus (c630 BCE-555 BCE)

Translated by: Edward Thomas Ffrench Bromhead (1789-1855)

Tags: 1849, 6th century bce, day after day and year by year, edward thomas ffrench bromhead, poetry, stesichorus, the grasshoppers