The Carnival by Apollo Corinthki

On a noisy carnival evening fall

We went joint to feast of the ball

In a merry garish crowd.

And among us, wrinkled, decrepit,

Withered, frail and very sick,

The publican went on grayed.

Everything was young among us:

Maidens, young men with flowers,

Laughter and shouts, a stream of words

Now we pour wine into bumper,

We look, the maidens are no more —

The old man has got  them  as a lord.

A sick man with feeble fist,

Moving  slowly by his foots,

How turned their heads besot?

And the one song from the maidens

That  we didn’t  know how to present

As he now gave  them a lot…