Soft-petaled violet or hyacinth

“Here on his rustic bed they lay the prince,
Most like a flower a girl’s fingers plucked,
Soft-petaled violet or hyacinth
With languid head, as yet no longer discomposed
Or faded, though its mother earth no longer
Nourishes it and makes it stand in bloom.”

Virgil, The Aeneid, between 29 and 19 BCE, translated by Robert Fitzgerald, 1983.

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