These are both by Strato, and newly translated for the blog. If you are likely to be offended or upset by references to ancient boy-love, I advise you to stop reading now.
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Still here? The first poem used to be read as being about boys' penises at different ages; now it's understood as being about stages of arousal during a sexual encounter. 'Lalou' and 'Coco' are nonsense-words, not found anwhere outside this poem: they could have been in common use among boy-lovers in Strato's time, or he could be making them up. The second poem is sweet.
12.3
Every boy has one, and each finds its place,
Friend Diodorus, in our trifold scheme.
Your second lesson: terminology.
The member yet untouched and in its spring,
You call ‘Lalou’; the one that just began
To puff and swell, is ‘Coco’; and the stage
When it is keen to shudder in the hand,
You call the ‘Lizard’. As for fully-grown —
You know to call it by its proper name.
12.9
You are so fair right now, and fully ripe
For older lovers; even if you wed,
We swear that we shall not abandon you.
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