• RICH, thou hadst many lovers—poor, hast none,
So surely want extinguishes the flame,
And she who call'd thee once her pretty one,
And her Adonis, now inquires thy name.Where wast thou born Sosicrates, and where
In what strange country can thy parents live,
Who seem'st, by thy complaints, not yet aware
That want's a crime, no woman can forgive?
• ("On Female Inconstancy") W. Hayley, Posthumous Writings of W. Cowper, ii (1802), 313.
• RICH, thou hadst many lovers; poor, hast none;
So surely want extinguishes the flame.
And she, who call'd thee once her pretty one,
And her Adonis, now inquires thy name—
“Where wast thou born, Sosicrates? and where,
In what strange country, can thy parents live?”
Who seem'st, by thy complaints, not yet aware,
That want's a crime no woman can forgive.
• W. Cowper; quoted in G. Burges, The Greek Anthology, 1854, 72.
Ἠράσθης πλουτῶν, Σωσίκρατες: ἀλλὰ πένης ὢν
οὐκέτ᾽ ἐρᾷς: λιμὸς φάρμακον οἷον ἔχει.
ἡ δὲ πάρος σε καλεῦσα μύρον καὶ τερπνὸν Ἄδωνιν
Μηνοφίλα, νῦν σου τοὔνομα πυνθάνεται,
“τίς πόθεν εἶς ἀνδρῶν, πόθι τοι πτόλις”; ἦ μόλις ἔγνως
τοῦτ᾽ ἔπος, ὡς οὐδεὶς οὐδὲν ἔχοντι φίλος.
• You fell in love, Sosicrates, when rich; now you are poor, you are in love no longer. What an admirable cure is hunger! And Menophila, who used to call you her sweety and her darling Adonis, now asks your name. “What man are you, and whence, your city where?”* You have perforce learnt the meaning of the saying, “None is the friend of him who has nothing.”
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Ἠράσθης πλουτῶν, Σωσίκρατες: ἀλλὰ πένης ὢν
οὐκέτ᾽ ἐρᾷς: λιμὸς φάρμακον οἷον ἔχει.
ἡ δὲ πάρος σε καλεῦσα μύρον καὶ τερπνὸν Ἄδωνιν
Μηνοφίλα, νῦν σου τοὔνομα πυνθάνεται,
“τίς πόθεν εἶς ἀνδρῶν, πόθι τοι πτόλις”; ἦ μόλις ἔγνως
τοῦτ᾽ ἔπος, ὡς οὐδεὶς οὐδὲν ἔχοντι φίλος.
• You fell in love, Sosicrates, when rich; now you are poor, you are in love no longer. What an admirable cure is hunger! And Menophila, who used to call you her sweety and her darling Adonis, now asks your name. “What man are you, and whence, your city where?”* You have perforce learnt the meaning of the saying, “None is the friend of him who has nothing.”" in the context of "W. R. Paton, Greek Anthology, i, 180-83.
• RICH, thou hadst many lovers—poor, hast none,
So surely want extinguishes the flame,
And she who call'd thee once her pretty one,
And her Adonis, now inquires thy name.Where wast thou born Sosicrates, and where
In what strange country can thy parents live,
Who seem'st, by thy complaints, not yet aware
That want's a crime, no woman can forgive?
• ("On Female Inconstancy") W. Hayley, Posthumous Writings of W. Cowper, ii (1802), 313.
• RICH, thou hadst many lovers; poor, hast none;
So surely want extinguishes the flame.
And she, who call'd thee once her pretty one,
And her Adonis, now inquires thy name—
“Where wast thou born, Sosicrates? and where,
In what strange country, can thy parents live?”
Who seem'st, by thy complaints, not yet aware,
That want's a crime no woman can forgive.
• W. Cowper; quoted in G. Burges, The Greek Anthology, 1854, 72." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
