Page:Poems by Robert Louis Stevenson, Hitherto unpublished, 1921.djvu/151

 HERE LIES EROTION—1884

In connection with Stevenson's translations from Martial—included in the earlier Bibliophile edition,—translations that embodied two of the Roman poet's tributes to the little slave child and dearly loved playmate who died at the age of six,—it was natural to dwell on the fact that Martial's most winning poems were those concerning Erotion. The present verses show Stevenson attempting an imitation in couplets, rather than a verbal translation of Martial (Book V, No. 35), and with the previously printed poems, one beginning, "Here lies Erotion whom at six years old Fate pilfered," and the other, "This girl was sweeter than the song of swans," they constitute a modern poet's group of adaptations of an unusual theme of ancient literature.

The original poem, "De Erotio," has only ten lines. Stevenson follows them fairly closely, the changes of the actual names of Erotion's parents (Fronte and Flaccila), to "mother and sire," and the introduction of the line "Where the great ancients sit with reverend face," being the only departures from the original worthy of note. [ 126 ]