| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Cynthia Bathing | | By Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim (1719–1803) |
| | Translated by Thomas Russell
FROM her fair limbs the last thin veil she drew, | |
| And naked stood in all her charms confess’d, | |
| The wanton gales her ringlets backward blew, | |
| To sport themselves more freely on her breast: | |
| From each warm beauty of the uncovered maid, | 5 |
| Before scarce guessed at, or but seen in part, | |
| From all, for all was to my eyes displayed, | |
| Delicious poison trickled to my heart: | |
| Since thus I gazed, (was mine to gaze the blame?), | |
| Nor bliss my soul hath tasted, nor repose; | 10 |
| The subtle venom glides through all my frame, | |
| And in my brain a fiery deluge glows: | |
| Thou, who my pangs wouldst shun, with wiser care | |
| The spot, where Cynthia bathes at noon, beware. | | | | |
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