Dorcas Works For a Dork

Meleager 5.182 (Greek Anthology)

Deliver this message, Dorcas.
Look, tell it to her a second time,
And a third, Dorcas, start to finish.
Run! Stop lolly-gagging! hurry!
Wait a second, Dorcas, one second.
Dorcas, where are you rushing to
Before I’ve told you the whole thing?
What I said just now, tell her that.
Why am I so, so silly?
Don’t say a single word of that.
Say instead that—say all of it!
Don’t hold back—say everything!
Dorcas, why am I sending you?
You know what, I’m going with you.
Actually, ahead of you!

ἄγγειλον τάδε, Δορκάς: ἰδοὺ πάλι δεύτερον αὐτῇ
καὶ τρίτον ἄγγειλον, Δορκάς, ἅπαντα. τρέχε:
μηκέτι μέλλε, πέτου — βραχύ μοι, βραχύ, Δορκάς, ἐπίσχες..
Δορκάς, ποῖ σπεύδεις, πρίν σε τὰ πάντα μαθεῖν; [p. 218]
πρόσθες δ᾽ οἷς εἴρηκα πάλαι — μᾶλλον δὲ ῾τί ληρῶ;᾿
μηδὲν ὅλως εἴπῃς — ἀλλ᾽ ὅτι — πάντα λέγε:
μὴ φείδου τὰ ἅπαντα λέγειν. καίτοι τί σε Δορκάς,
ἐκπέμπω, σὺν σοὶ καὐτός, ἰδού, προάγων;