Click in the field, then press CTRL+C to copy the HTML code
<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=475848" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>Salmacis And Hermaphroditus</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">HOW Salmacis with weak enfeebling streams <br>Softens the body, and unnerves the limbs, <br>And what the secret cause shall here be shown; <br>The cause is secret, but the effect is known. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The Naiads nurst an infant heretofore, <br>That Cytherea once to Hermes bore; <br>From both the illustrious authors of his race <br>The child was named; nor was it hard to trace <br>Both the bright parents through the infant's face; <br>When fifteen years, in Ida's cool retreat, <br>The boy had told, he left his native seat, <br>And sought fresh fountains in a foreign soil; <br>The pleasure lessened the attending toil. <br>With eager steps the Lycian fields he crossed, <br>And fields that border on the Lycian coast; <br>A River here he viewed so lovely bright, <br>It showed the bottom in a fairer light, <br>Nor kept a sand concealed from human sight. <br>The stream produced, nor slimy ooze, nor weeds, <br>Nor miry rushes nor the spiky reeds: <br>But dealt encircling moisture all around, <br>The fruitful banks with cheerful verdure crowned, <br>And kept the spring eternal on the ground <br>A nymph presides, nor practised in the chase, <br>Nor skilful at the bow, nor at the race; <br>Of all the blue-eyed daughters of the main. <br>The only stranger to Diana's train; <br>Her sisters, often, as 'tis said, would cry, <br>'Fie, Salmacis, what, always idle! Fie! <br>Or take thy quiver or thy arrows seize, <br>And mix the toils of hunting with thy ease.' <br>But oft would bathe her in the crystal tide, <br>Oft with a comb her dewy locks divide; <br>Now in the limpid streams she viewed her face, <br>And drest her image in the floating glass: <br>On beds of leaves she now reposed her limbs, <br>Now gathered flowers that grew about her streams; <br>And then by chance was gathering, as she stood <br>To view the boy, and longed for what she viewed. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Fain would she meet the youth with hasty feet, <br>She fain would meet him, but refused to meet <br>Before her looks were set with nicest care, <br>And well deserved to be reputed fair. <br>'Bright youth,' she cries, 'whom all thy features prove <br>A God, and, if a God, the God of Love; <br>But if a mortal, blest thy nurse's breast, <br>Blest are thy parents, and thy sisters blest: <br>But, oh! how blest! how more than blest thy bride, <br>Allied in bliss, if any get allied: <br>If so, let mine the stolen enjoyment be; <br>If not, behold a willing bride to me.' </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The boy knew nought of love, and, touched with shame, <br>He strove, and blushed, but still the blush became; <br>In rising blushes still fresh beauties rose; <br>The sunny side of fruit such blushes shows, <br>And such the moon, when all her silver white <br>Turns in eclipses to a ruddy light. <br>The Nymph still begs, if not a nobler bliss, <br>A cold salute at least, a sister's kiss; <br>And now prepares to take the lovely boy <br>Between her arms. He, innocently coy, <br>Replies, 'Oh leave me to myself alone, <br>You rude, uncivil nymph, or I'll begone.' <br>'Fair stranger then,' says she; 'it shall be so'; <br>And, for she feared his threats, she feigned to go; <br>But hid within a covert's neighboring green, <br>She kept him still in sight, herself unseen. <br>The boy now fancies all the danger o'er, <br>And innocently sports about the shore, <br>Playful and wanton to the stream he trips, <br>And dips his foot, and shivers as he dips, <br>The coolness pleases him, and with eager haste <br>His airy garments on the banks he cast; <br>His godlike features and his heavenly hue, <br>And all his beauties were exposed to view. <br>His naked limbs the nymph with rapture spies, <br>While hotter passions in her bosom rise, <br>Flush in her cheeks, and sparkle in her eyes. <br>She longs, she burns to clasp him in her arms, <br>And loves, and sighs, and kindles at his charms. </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Now all undrest upon the banks he stood, <br>And clapt his sides and leapt into the flood: <br>His lovely limbs the silver waves divide, <br>His limbs appear more lovely through the tide; <br>As lilies shut within a crystal case, <br>Receive a glossy lustre from the glass. <br>'He's mine, he's all my own,' the Naiad cries, <br>And flings off all, and after him she flies. <br>And now she fastens on him as he swims, <br>And holds him close, and wraps about his limbs. <br>The more the boy resisted and was coy, <br>The more she kissed and clipt the strippling boy. <br>So when the wriggling snake is hatched on high <br>In eagle's claws, and hisses in the sky, <br>Around the foe his twirling tail he flings, <br>And twists her legs, and writhes about her wings. <br>The restless boy still obstinately strove <br>To free himself and still refused her love. <br>Amidst his limbs she kept her limbs entwined, <br>'And why, coy youth,' she cries, 'why thus unkind! <br>Oh, may the Gods thus keep us ever joined! <br>Oh, may we never, never part again!' <br>So prayed the nymph, nor did she pray in vain: <br>For now she finds him, as his limbs she prest, <br>Grow nearer still, and nearer to her breast; <br>Till, piercing each the other's flesh, they run <br>Together, and incorporate in one: <br>Last in one face are both their faces joined, <br>As when the stock and grafter twig combined <br>Shoot up the same, and wear a common mind: </div><div style="margin:10px 0">Both bodies in a single body mix, <br>A single body with a double sex. <br>The boy, thus lost in woman, now surveyed <br>The river's guilty stream, and thus he prayed. <br>(He prayed, but wondered at his softer tone, <br>Surprised to hear a voice but half his own.) <br>You parent gods, whose heavenly names I bear, <br>Hear your Hermaphrodite, and grant my prayer; <br>Oh, grant that--whom so'er these streams contain, <br>If man he entered, he may rise again <br>Supple, unsinewed, and but half a man! </div><div style="margin:10px 0">The heavenly parents answered, from on high <br>Their two-shaped son, the double votary; <br>Then gave a secret virtue to the flood, <br>And tinged its source to make his wishes good.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Ovid">Ovid</a><div class=q>
<img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share">
<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=475848" data-title="Salmacis And Hermaphroditus de Ovid" data-description="HOW Salmacis with weak enfeebling streams 
Softens the body, and unnerves the limbs, 
And what the secret cause shall here be shown; 
The cause is secret, but the effect is known. 

The Naiads nurst an infant heretofore, 
That Cytherea once to Her..."></div>
</div>
</div>