The single cloak

Stay put where I hung you

  above the door, my garlands.

  Don't hurry to shake your petals,

  watered by my tears.

Lovers' eyes rain easily. But when

  you see him open the door,

  let my rain drip on his head;

  that way at least

his blond hair will drink my tears.

 Sweet for the thirsty

 is a drink of snow in summer,

 and sweet for sailors to run before

 spring breezes at winter's end

 But sweeter still is the single cloak

 that hides two lovers as they honor

   Aphrodite.

 Drink. Asclepiades. Tears? What's

   the problem?

   You're hardly the only one

   Aphrodite plundered,

 Hardly the only one piercing Eros

   sighted with his sharpened

   bow and arrows. Still, alive

   why make your bed on ashes?

Let's drink what Bacchus

  offers undiluted. Day-

  light's a finger's

    distance away.

  Why wait for the lamp

  that signals a night's

  sleep?

Let's drink, sad lover. 

  Not far down the road,

  poor soul,

  we'll have an endless

  night to rest.

Asclepiades of Samos

ca 300 - 270 BC

i, iii-iv  Edmund Keeley

  translation

ii  Bradley P. Nystrom

  translation

The Greek Poets

  Homer to the Present

op. cit.