I’ve made a first attempt at fixing the last two lines. It turns out that many scholars have regarded “ἄμεινον” as corrupt, and I couldn’t make much sense of it until I came across this enlightening passage by Sonya Lida Tarán:
“As it stands in the manuscripts the hexameter has been suspected of being corrupt because of the word ἄμεινον, “for if the garlands do not discharge their office the tears will not fall on the boy’s head at all”. Knauer (ad loc.) says that the word is “logisch nicht klar”. But he adds that “vielleicht = ‘besser’ als es sonst möglich ist”, and thus, though he is not as specific as one would wish him to be, he seems to come close to the correct explanation. For in fact the text is sound and emendation worse than unnecessary. What Asclepiades is saying is that the garlands should drop the lover’s tears right upon the boy’s head (ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς) that his hair may drink them thoroughly, that is, drink them better than it would if they were dropped not very accurately ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς but somewhat to one side or the other. Hence the important words for the understanding of this line and particularly of ἄμεινον are those that indicate the place where the tears must fall. since on these words (ὑπὲρ κεφαλῆς) ends the better fulfilment of the wish which is of course the point of the epigram: that the boy’s hair should drink the lover’s tears.
“This point, a moving tour de force, takes us back to the sentimental tone of the first three lines which had been somewhat interrupted by the lover’s directions in lines 4-5. The boy’s blond hair is to drink his lover’s tears when he issues out of the house, and this is supposed to bring some consolation to the rejected lover. That is the sense of γε in line 6, for which Gow-Page cannot find any purpose other than metrical. The boy does not open his door and cannot see his lover’s tears, and, moreover, the lover cannot enjoy the boy’s favors. But the knowledge that at least the boy’s hair—if not the boy himself—will notice his tears, and conversely that his own tears—if not himself—will touch the boy’s hair, will to some extent assuage his sorrow.” (The Art of Variation in the Hellenistic Epigram. Leiden: E. ]. Brill, 1979.)
BTW, Julie, I see that your guy and mine were buds back in the day.
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