Читать книгу Yale Classics - Ancient Greek Literature - Anacreon - Страница 150

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Never engage with a poltroon or craven--

Avoid him, Kurnus, as a treach'rous haven!

These friends and hearty comrades, as you think,

(Ready to join you, when you feast and drink),

These easy friends from difficulty shrink.

For a shrewd intellect, the best employ

Is to detect a soul of base alloy;

No task is harder nor imports so much;

Silver or gold, you prove it by the touch;

You separate the pure, discard the dross,

And disregard the labour and the loss:

But a friend's heart, base and adulterate--

A friendly surface with a core of hate!

Of all the frauds with which the Fates have cursed

Our simple easy nature--is the worst:

Beyond the rest ruinous in effect;

And of all others hardest to detect:

For men's and women's hearts you cannot try

Beforehand, like the cattle that you buy.

Nor human wit nor reason, when you treat

For such a purpose, can escape deceit:

Fancy betrays us, and assists the cheat.