Doing, a filthy pleasure is, and short;
and done, we straight repent us of the sport:
let us not rush blindly on unto it,
like lustful beasts, that only know to do it:
for lust will languish, and that heat decay,
but thus, thus, keeping endless holy-day,
let us together closely lie, and kiss,
there is no labor, nor no shame in this;
this hath pleased, doth please and long will please; never can this decay,
but is beginning ever.
From: Roetzheim, William (ed.), The Giant Book of Poetry, 2006, Level Four Press, San Diego, California, p. 33.
(https://books.google.com.au/books?id=b90iAAAACAAJ)
Date: c60 (original in Latin); 1640 (translation in English)
By: Gaius Petronius Arbiter (c27-66)
Translated by: Ben Jonson (1572-1637)
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