Ovid: FASTI

Legerat huius Amor titulum nomenque libelli:
     'Bella mihi, video, bella parantur' ait.
'Parce tuum vatem sceleris damnare, Cupido,
     Tradita qui toties te duce signa tuli.
Non ego Tydides, a quo tua saucia mater

Love had read the title and the name of this little book:
     'Wars for me, I see, wars are being prepared,' he said.
'Spare to condemn your poet for crime, Cupid,
     I who so often, with you as leader, have borne the entrusted standards.
I am not the Tydides, by whom your mother was wounded

     In liquidum rediit aethera Martis equis.
Saepe tepent alii iuvenes: ego semper amavi,
     Et si, quid faciam, nunc quoque, quaeris, amo.
Quin etiam docui, qua posses arte parari,
     Et quod nunc ratio est, impetus ante fuit.

     Into the liquid ether he returned with Mars’s horses.
Often other youths grow warm: I have always loved,
     And if you ask what I do now too, I love.
Nay indeed I even taught by what art you could be procured,
     And what now is reason, once was impulse.

Nec te, blande puer, nec nostras prodimus artes,
     Nec nova praeteritum Musa retexit opus.
Siquis amat quod amare iuvat, feliciter ardens
     Gaudeat, et vento naviget ille suo.
At siquis male fert indignae regna puellae,

Nor you, charming boy, nor our arts do we betray,
     Nor does a new Muse reweave a past work.
If anyone loves what it delights to love, happily burning
     let him rejoice, and let him sail with his own wind.
But if anyone bears ill the rule of an unworthy girl,

     Ne pereat, nostrae sentiat artis opem.
Cur aliquis laqueo collum nodatus amator
     A trabe sublimi triste pependit onus?
Cur aliquis rigido fodit sua pectora ferro?
     Invidiam caedis, pacis amator, habes.

     Let him not perish; let him feel the aid of our art.
Why has some lover, his neck knotted with a noose,
     has hung as a sad burden from a lofty beam?
Why has someone stabbed his own breast with rigid iron?
     You, lover of peace, have the odium of slaughter.

Qui, nisi desierit, misero periturus amore est,
     Desinat; et nulli funeris auctor eris.
Et puer es, nec te quicquam nisi ludere oportet:
     Lude; decent annos mollia regna tuos.
[Nam poteras uti nudis ad bella sagittis:

He who, unless he ceases, is going to perish by wretched love,
     let him cease; and you will be the author of no one’s funeral.
And you are a boy, nor ought you to do anything except play:
     play; soft realms befit your years.
[For you could use naked arrows for wars:

     Sed tua mortifero sanguine tela carent.]
Vitricus et gladiis et acuta dimicet hasta,
     Et victor multa caede cruentus eat:
Tu cole maternas, tuto quibus utimur, artes,
     Et quarum vitio nulla fit orba parens.

     But your weapons are free of death-bringing blood.]
Let the stepfather fight with swords and with a sharp spear,
     and, a victor, let him go bloodied with much slaughter:
you, cultivate your maternal arts, which we use safely,
     and by whose fault no parent becomes bereft of a child.

Effice nocturna frangatur ianua rixa,
     Et tegat ornatas multa corona fores:
Fac coeant furtim iuvenes timidaeque puellae,
     Verbaque dent cauto qualibet arte viro:
Et modo blanditias rigido, modo iurgia posti

Bring it about that the door be broken by a nocturnal brawl,
     and let many a garland cover the ornamented doors:
Make youths and timid girls come together stealthily,
     and let them give words to the cautious man by whatever art:
And now blandishments to the rigid post, now quarrels to the post

     Dicat et exclusus flebile cantet amans.
His lacrimis contentus eris sine crimine mortis;
     Non tua fax avidos digna subire rogos.'
Haec ego: movit Amor gemmatas aureus alas,
     Et mihi 'propositum perfice' dixit 'opus.'

     Let the excluded lover speak and sing a tearful song.
With these tears you will be content without the charge of death;
     Your torch is not worthy to undergo the avid pyres.'
This I said: golden Love moved his gemmed wings,
     and to me he said 'perfect the purposed' 'work.'

Ad mea, decepti iuvenes, praecepta venite,
     Quos suus ex omni parte fefellit amor.
Discite sanari, per quem didicistis amare:
     Una manus vobis vulnus opemque feret.
Terra salutares herbas, eademque nocentes

Come to my precepts, deceived youths,
     you whom your own love has deceived on every side.
Learn to be healed by him through whom you learned to love:
     one hand will bring you both the wound and the aid.
The earth bears salutary herbs, and the same bears noxious ones

     Nutrit, et urticae proxima saepe rosa est;
Vulnus in Herculeo quae quondam fecerat hoste,
     Vulneris auxilium Pelias hasta tulit.
Sed quaecumque viris, vobis quoque dicta, puellae,
     Credite: diversis partibus arma damus,

     it nurtures, and the rose is often next to the nettle;
The spear which once had made a wound in the Herculean foe—
     the Pelian spear brought the aid for the wound.
But whatever things have been said for men, for you also, girls,
     believe: we furnish arms to different parties,

E quibus ad vestros siquid non pertinet usus,
     Attamen exemplo multa docere potest.
Utile propositum est saevas extinguere flammas,
     Nec servum vitii pectus habere sui.
Vixisset Phyllis, si me foret usa magistro,

From these, if anything does not pertain to your use,
     yet by example it can teach many things.
It is a useful purpose to extinguish savage flames,
     nor to have the heart a slave to its own vice.
Phyllis would have lived, if she had made use of me as a teacher,

     Et per quod novies, saepius isset iter;
Nec moriens Dido summa vidisset ab arce
     Dardanias vento vela dedisse rates;
Nec dolor armasset contra sua viscera matrem,
     Quae socii damno sanguinis ulta virum est.

     And along that path which nine times she went, she would have gone more often;
Nor, dying, would Dido have seen from the highest citadel
     the Dardanian ships give their sails to the wind;
Nor would grief have armed a mother against her own flesh,
     who, to the loss of their shared blood, avenged herself on her husband.

Arte mea Tereus, quamvis Philomela placeret,
     Per facinus fieri non meruisset avis.
Da mihi Pasiphaen, iam tauri ponet amorem:
     Da Phaedram, Phaedrae turpis abibit amor.
Crede Parim nobis, Helenen Menelaus habebit,

By my art, Tereus, although Philomela pleased,
     he would not have merited to become a bird through a crime.
Give me Pasiphae, now she will set aside her love for the bull:
     Give Phaedra, Phaedra’s shameful love will depart.
Entrust Paris to us, Menelaus will have Helen,

     Nec manibus Danais Pergama victa cadent.
Impia si nostros legisset Scylla libellos,
     Haesisset capiti purpura, Nise, tuo.
Me duce damnosas, homines, conpescite curas,
     Rectaque cum sociis me duce navis eat.

     Nor would Pergama, conquered, fall to the Danaans’ hands.
If impious Scylla had read our little books,
     the purple would have clung to your head, O Nisus.
With me as leader, men, restrain your ruinous cares,
     and let the ship go straight with comrades, with me as leader.

Naso legendus erat tum, cum didicistis amare:
     Idem nunc vobis Naso legendus erit.
Publicus assertor dominis suppressa levabo
     Pectora: vindictae quisque favete suae.
Te precor incipiens, adsit tua laurea nobis,

Naso ought to have been read then, when you learned to love:
     The same Naso will now have to be read by you.
As public assertor I will alleviate hearts suppressed by masters
     Let each man favor his own vindication.
I pray you as I begin, may your laurel be present to us,

     Carminis et medicae, Phoebe, repertor opis.
Tu pariter vati, pariter succurre medenti:
     Utraque tutelae subdita cura tua est.
Dum licet, et modici tangunt praecordia motus,
     Si piget, in primo limine siste pedem.

     Phoebus, discoverer of song and of medical aid.
Do you equally succor the vatic poet, equally the physician:
     each care is subjected to your tutelage.
While it is permitted, and slight motions touch the precordia,
     if it irks you, halt your foot at the first threshold.

Opprime, dum nova sunt, subiti mala semina morbi,
     Et tuus incipiens ire resistat equus.
Nam mora dat vires, teneras mora percoquit uvas,
     Et validas segetes quae fuit herba, facit.
Quae praebet latas arbor spatiantibus umbras,

Crush, while they are new, the evil seeds of a sudden sickness,
     and let your horse, beginning to go, resist.
For delay gives strength; delay ripens through the tender grapes,
     and makes robust crops of what was grass.
The tree which provides broad shades for those strolling,

     Quo posita est primum tempore virga fuit;
Tum poterat manibus summa tellure revelli:
     Nunc stat in inmensum viribus aucta suis.
Quale sit id, quod amas, celeri circumspice mente,
     Et tua laesuro subtrahe colla iugo.

     When it was first planted, it was a rod;
Then it could be torn up by hands from the surface of the earth:
     Now it stands immense, augmented by its own forces.
Of what sort that which you love is, survey with a swift mind,
     And withdraw your neck from the yoke that will injure you.

Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur,
     Cum mala per longas convaluere moras.
Sed propera, nec te venturas differ in horas;
     Qui non est hodie, cras minus aptus erit:
Verba dat omnis amor, reperitque alimenta morando;

Stand against beginnings; medicine is prepared too late,
     when evils have grown strong through long delays.
But hurry, and do not defer yourself to the hours to come;
     he who is not today will be less apt tomorrow:
Every love deals out words, and finds nourishment by delaying.

     Optima vindictae proxima quaeque dies.
Flumina pauca vides de magnis fontibus orta:
     Plurima collectis multiplicantur aquis.
Si cito sensisses, quantum peccare parares,
     Non tegeres vultus cortice, Myrrha, tuos.

     Each day next at hand is best for vengeance.
Few rivers you see arisen from great springs:
     Very many are multiplied by collected waters.
If you had sensed quickly how much you were preparing to sin,
     you would not be covering your face with bark, Myrrha.

100

Vidi ego, quod fuerat primo sanabile, vulnus
     Dilatum longae damna tulisse morae.
Sed quia delectat Veneris decerpere fructum,
     Dicimus adsidue 'cras quoque fiet idem.'
Interea tacitae serpunt in viscera flammae,

I myself have seen a wound, which at first had been curable,
     deferred, suffer the damages of long delay.
But because it delights to pluck the fruit of Venus,
     we say continually, 'tomorrow too the same will be done.'
Meanwhile the silent flames creep into the vitals,

105

     Et mala radices altius arbor agit.
Si tamen auxilii perierunt tempora primi,
     Et vetus in capto pectore sedit amor,
Maius opus superest: sed non, quia serior aegro
     Advocor, ille mihi destituendus erit.

     And the bad tree drives its roots deeper.
If, however, the times for first aid have perished,
     and old love has settled in the captured breast,
A greater task remains: but not, because later to the sick man
     I am summoned, must he be abandoned by me.

110

Quam laesus fuerat, partem Poeantius heros
     Certa debuerat praesecuisse manu;
Post tamen hic multos sanatus creditur annos
     Supremam bellis imposuisse manum.
Qui modo nascentes properabam pellere morbos,

The part by which he had been injured, the Poeantian hero
     ought to have cut off with a sure hand;
Afterwards, however, this man, healed after many years,
     is believed to have put the finishing hand upon the wars.
I, who just now was hastening to drive away nascent diseases,

115

     Admoveo tardam nunc tibi lentus opem.
Aut nova, si possis, sedare incendia temptes,
     Aut ubi per vires procubuere suas:
Dum furor in cursu est, currenti cede furori;
     Difficiles aditus impetus omnis habet.

     I now bring to you, deliberate, a tardy aid.
Or, if you can, try to quench the new fires,
     Or when they have collapsed by their own powers:
While fury is in its course, yield to the running fury;
     Every onset has difficult approaches.

120

Stultus, ab obliquo qui cum descendere possit,
     Pugnat in adversas ire natator aquas.
Impatiens animus nec adhuc tractabilis artem
     Respuit, atque odio verba monentis habet.
Adgrediar melius tum, cum sua vulnera tangi

Foolish, he who, though he could descend at a slant,
     the swimmer fights to go into adverse waters.
An impatient spirit, and not yet tractable, rejects the art,
     and holds in hatred the words of the admonisher.
I will approach him better then, when his own wounds are touched

125

     Iam sinet, et veris vocibus aptus erit.
Quis matrem, nisi mentis inops, in funere nati
     Flere vetet? non hoc illa monenda loco est.
Cum dederit lacrimas animumque impleverit aegrum,
     Ille dolor verbis emoderandus erit.

     Now he will allow it, and will be apt for true words.
Who, unless bereft of reason, would forbid a mother at the funeral of her son
     to weep? This is not the place for her to be admonished about this.
When she has shed tears and has filled her ailing spirit,
     that grief will have to be moderated by words.

130

Temporis ars medicina fere est: data tempore prosunt,
     Et data non apto tempore vina nocent.
Quin etiam accendas vitia inritesque vetando,
     Temporibus si non adgrediare suis.
Ergo ubi visus eris nostra medicabilis arte,

Timing’s art is almost medicine: things given in time are beneficial,
     and wines, given at an inapt time, harm.
Nay rather, you even kindle vices and irritate them by forbidding,
     if you do not approach them at their proper times.
Therefore, when you shall have appeared curable by our art,

135

     Fac monitis fugias otia prima meis.
Haec, ut ames, faciunt; haec, quod fecere, tuentur;
     Haec sunt iucundi causa cibusque mali.
Otia si tollas, periere Cupidinis arcus,
     Contemptaeque iacent et sine luce faces.

     See to it, by my admonitions, that you flee the first moments of leisure.
These make you love; these maintain what they have made;
     These are the cause and the food of the jocund ill.
If you take away leisure, Cupid’s bows have perished,
     And the torches lie despised and without light.

140

Quam platanus vino gaudet, quam populus unda,
     Et quam limosa canna palustris humo,
Tam Venus otia amat; qui finem quaeris amoris,
     Cedit amor rebus: res age, tutus eris.
Languor, et inmodici sub nullo vindice somni,

As much as the plane-tree rejoices in wine, as the poplar in water,
     And as the marsh-reed in muddy soil,
So does Venus love leisure; you who seek an end of love,
     Love yields to affairs: do business, you will be safe.
Languor, and immoderate sleep with no avenger,

145

     Aleaque, et multo tempora quassa mero
Eripiunt omnes animo sine vulnere nervos:
     Adfluit incautis insidiosus Amor.
Desidiam puer ille sequi solet, odit agentes:
     Da vacuae menti, quo teneatur, opus.

     And dice, and hours shaken with much wine
snatch all the nerves from the mind without a wound:
     insidious Love flows in upon the incautious.
That boy is wont to follow idleness; he hates the active:
     give the empty mind work, by which it may be held.

150

Sunt fora, sunt leges, sunt, quos tuearis, amici:
     Vade per urbanae splendida castra togae.
Vel tu sanguinei iuvenalia munera Martis
     Suspice: deliciae iam tibi terga dabunt.
Ecce, fugax Parthus, magni nova causa triumphi,

There are forums, there are laws, there are friends whom you may protect:
     Go through the splendid camps of the urban toga.
Or the youthful duties of blood-stained Mars
     Look up to: the darlings will now give you their backs.
Behold, the fleeing Parthian, a new cause of a great triumph,

155

     Iam videt in campis Caesaris arma suis:
Vince Cupidineas pariter Parthasque sagittas,
     Et refer ad patrios bina tropaea deos.
Ut semel Aetola Venus est a cuspide laesa,
     Mandat amatori bella gerenda suo.

     Now he sees in his own fields the arms of Caesar:
Conquer alike the arrows of Cupid and the Parthians,
     And carry back to the ancestral gods twin trophies.
As once Venus was wounded by an Aetolian spear,
     She entrusts her lover with the waging of wars.

160

Quaeritur, Aegisthus quare sit factus adulter?
     In promptu causa est: desidiosus erat.
Pugnabant alii tardis apud Ilion armis:
     Transtulerat vires Graecia tota suas.
Sive operam bellis vellet dare, nulla gerebat:

It is asked, why Aegisthus was made an adulterer?
     The cause is in plain view: he was slothful.
Others were fighting at Ilion with tardy arms:
     All Greece had transferred its forces.
Even if he wished to give effort to wars, he was waging none:

165

     Sive foro, vacuum litibus Argos erat.
Quod potuit, ne nil illic ageretur, amavit.
     Sic venit ille puer, sic puer ille manet.
Rura quoque oblectant animos studiumque colendi:
     Quaelibet huic curae cedere cura potest.                170
Colla iube domitos oneri supponere tauros,
     Sauciet ut duram vomer aduncus humum:
Obrue versata Cerialia semina terra,
     Quae tibi cum multo faenore reddat ager.
Aspice curvatos pomorum pondere ramos,

     Or in the forum—Argos was empty of lawsuits.
What he could, so that not nothing be done there, he loved.
     Thus he came a boy, thus a boy he remains.
The fields too delight the minds and the zeal for cultivating:
     Any care can yield to this care.                170
Order the tamed bulls to put their necks under the burden,
     so that the hooked ploughshare may wound the hard soil:
Cover over with turned earth the Cerial seeds,
     which the field may return to you with much interest.
Behold the branches bent by the weight of fruits,

175

     Ut sua, quod peperit, vix ferat arbor onus;
Aspice labentes iucundo murmure rivos;
     Aspice tondentes fertile gramen oves.
Ecce, petunt rupes praeruptaque saxa capellae:
     Iam referent haedis ubera plena suis;

     So that the tree scarcely bears, as its own, the burden which it has begotten;
Behold the streams gliding with a pleasant murmur;
     Behold the sheep shearing the fertile grass.
Look, the she-goats seek the cliffs and the precipitous rocks:
     Now they will bring back to their own kids udders full;

180

Pastor inaequali modulatur harundine carmen,
     Nec desunt comites, sedula turba, canes;
Parte sonant alia silvae mugitibus altae,
     Et queritur vitulum mater abesse suum.
Quid, cum suppositos fugiunt examina fumos,

The shepherd modulates a song on an uneven reed,
     Nor are companions lacking, a busy throng, the dogs;
In another part the high woods resound with lowings,
     And the mother complains that her calf is absent.
What, when the swarms flee the smokes set beneath,

185

     Ut relevent dempti vimina curva favi?
Poma dat autumnus: formosa est messibus aestas:
     Ver praebet flores: igne levatur hiems.
Temporibus certis maturam rusticus uvam
     Deligit, et nudo sub pede musta fluunt;

     So that the curved withes may relieve the honeycomb that has been removed?
Autumn gives fruits: summer is fair with harvests:
     Spring offers flowers: winter is lightened by fire.
At fixed times the rustic chooses the ripe grape
     and beneath his bare foot the must flows;

190

Temporibus certis desectas alligat herbas,
     Et tonsam raro pectine verrit humum.
Ipse potes riguis plantam deponere in hortis,
     Ipse potes rivos ducere lenis aquae.
Venerit insitio; fac ramum ramus adoptet,

At fixed times he binds the cut herbs,
     And with a sparse comb he sweeps the shorn ground.
You yourself can set a plant in irrigated gardens,
     You yourself can lead rivulets of gentle water.
Let grafting come; make branch adopt branch,

195

     Stetque peregrinis arbor operta comis.
Cum semel haec animum coepit mulcere voluptas,
     Debilibus pinnis inritus exit Amor.
Vel tu venandi studium cole: saepe recessit
     Turpiter a Phoebi victa sorore Venus.

     And let the tree stand covered with foreign leaves.
When once this pleasure has begun to soothe the mind,
     Love goes out ineffectual with feeble pinions.
Or cultivate the study of hunting: often has withdrawn
     Venus shamefully, conquered by the sister of Phoebus.

200

Nunc leporem pronum catulo sectare sagaci,
     Nunc tua frondosis retia tende iugis,
Aut pavidos terre varia formidine cervos,
     Aut cadat adversa cuspide fossus aper.
Nocte fatigatum somnus, non cura puellae,

Now pursue the prone hare with your sagacious whelp,
     Now stretch your nets on the leafy ridges,
Or terrify the timid stags with various fear,
     Or let the boar fall, pierced by a spear-point turned against him.
At night, sleep, not the care of a girl,

205

     Excipit et pingui membra quiete levat.
Lenius est studium, studium tamen, alite capta
     Aut lino aut calamis praemia parva sequi,
Vel, quae piscis edax avido male devoret ore,
     Abdere sub parvis aera recurva cibis.

     It receives him and lightens his limbs with rich repose.
The pursuit is gentler—yet a pursuit—, with a bird caught,
     either with line or with reeds to chase small prizes,
Or, which the ravenous fish poorly devours with a greedy mouth,
     to hide beneath small baits the curved bronze hooks.

210

Aut his aut aliis, donec dediscis amare,
     Ipse tibi furtim decipiendus eris.
Tu tantum quamvis firmis retinebere vinclis,
     I procul, et longas carpere perge vias;
Flebis, et occurret desertae nomen amicae,

Either by these or by others, until you unlearn to love,
     you yourself must stealthily deceive yourself.
Only do this: although you will be held by firm bonds,
     go far away, and keep on taking long roads;
You will weep, and the name of the forsaken girlfriend will meet you,

215

     Stabit et in media pes tibi saepe via:
Sed quanto minus ire voles, magis ire memento;
     Perfer, et invitos currere coge pedes.
Nec pluvias opta, nec te peregrina morentur
     Sabbata, nec damnis Allia nota suis.

     And your foot will often stand still for you in the middle of the way:
But the less you will wish to go, remember to go the more;
     Endure, and compel your unwilling feet to run.
Nor wish for rains, nor let
     foreign Sabbaths delay you, nor the Allia noted for its losses.

220

Nec quot transieris et quot tibi, quaere, supersint
     Milia; nec, maneas ut prope, finge moras:
Tempora nec numera, nec crebro respice Romam,
     Sed fuge: tutus adhuc Parthus ab hoste fuga est.
Dura aliquis praecepta vocet mea; dura fatemur

Nor ask how many you have crossed and how many miles remain for you,
     nor feign delays, in order that you may stay near:
Nor count the times, nor often look back toward Rome,
     but flee: the Parthian is still safe from the foe by flight.
Someone may call my precepts hard; hard we confess

225

     Esse; sed ut valeas, multa dolenda feres.
Saepe bibi sucos, quamvis invitus, amaros
     Aeger, et oranti mensa negata mihi.
Ut corpus redimas, ferrum patieris et ignes,
     Arida nec sitiens ora levabis aqua:                230
Ut valeas animo, quicquam tolerare negabis?
     At pretium pars haec corpore maius habet.
Sed tamen est artis tristissima ianua nostrae,
     Et labor est unus tempora prima pati.
Aspicis, ut prensos urant iuga prima iuvencos,

     They are; yet, that you may be well, you will bear many things to be grieved.
Often, though unwilling, I drank bitter juices while sick,     and the table was denied me as I begged.
That you may redeem the body, you will endure iron and fires,     nor, though thirsty, will you soothe dry lips with water:                230
that you may be well in mind, will you refuse to tolerate anything?
     But this part has a price greater than the body.
Yet the doorway of our art is most sad,     and the one labor is to endure the first times.
Do you see how the first yokes scorch the just-grasped young bullocks,

235

     Et nova velocem cingula laedat equum?
Forsitan a laribus patriis exire pigebit:
     Sed tamen exibis: deinde redire voles;
Nec te Lar patrius, sed amor revocabit amicae,
     Praetendens culpae splendida verba tuae.

     And do the new girths injure the swift horse?
Perhaps to go out from the ancestral Lares will be irksome:
     But nevertheless you will go out; then you will wish to return;
Nor will the paternal Lar, but the love of your mistress, call you back,
     Pretexting splendid words for your culpability.

240

Cum semel exieris, centum solatia curae
     Et rus et comites et via longa dabit.
Nec satis esse putes discedere; lentus abesto,
     Dum perdat vires sitque sine igne cinis.
Quod nisi firmata properaris mente reverti,

When once you have gone out, a hundred solaces for your care
     both the countryside and companions and the long road will give.
Nor think it enough to depart; be slow—be absent,
     until it loses strength and the ash is without fire.
But unless, with your mind made firm, you hasten to return,

245

     Inferet arma tibi saeva rebellis Amor.
Quidquid et afueris, avidus sitiensque redibis,
     Et spatium damno cesserit omne tuo.
Viderit, Haemoniae siquis mala pabula terrae
     Et magicas artes posse iuvare putat.

     Rebellious Love will bring savage arms against you.
However long you have been away, avid and thirsting you will return,
     and every span will have yielded to your detriment.
Let him see to it, if anyone thinks the baleful fodders of Haemonian land
     and the magical arts can help.

250

Ista veneficii vetus est via; noster Apollo
     Innocuam sacro carmine monstrat opem.
Me duce non tumulo prodire iubebitur umbra,
     Non anus infami carmine rumpet humum;
Non seges ex aliis alios transibit in agros,

That is the old path of witchcraft; our Apollo demonstrates innocuous aid by sacred song.
With me as guide, no shade will be bidden to come forth from the tomb;
Nor will an old woman burst the soil with infamous incantation;
No standing crop will pass from others’ fields into other fields,

255

     Nec subito Phoebi pallidus orbis erit.
Ut solet, aequoreas ibit Tiberinus in undas:
     Ut solet, in niveis Luna vehetur equis.
Nulla recantatas deponent pectora curas,
     Nec fugiet vivo sulpure victus amor.

     Nor will the orb of Phoebus suddenly grow pallid.
As is his wont, Tiberinus will go into the sea-waves:
     As is her wont, Luna will be borne by snow-white horses.
No hearts will lay down cares that have been charmed back,
     Nor will love, conquered by living sulphur, take flight.

260

Quid te Phasiacae iuverunt gramina terrae,
     Cum cuperes patria, Colchi, manere domo?
Quid tibi profuerunt, Circe, Perseides herbae,
     Cum sua Neritias abstulit aura rates?
Omnia fecisti, ne callidus hospes abiret:

What good did the grasses of the Phasian land do you,
     when you, Colchian, were wishing to remain in your fatherland home?
What did the Perseid herbs profit you, Circe,
     when their own breeze bore away the Neritian ships?
You did everything, lest the cunning guest should depart:

265

     Ille dedit certae lintea plena fugae.
Omnia fecisti, ne te ferus ureret ignis:
     Longus in invito pectore sedit amor.
Vertere tu poteras homines in mille figuras,
     Non poteras animi vertere iura tui.

     He gave full sails for a sure flight.
You did everything, lest the fierce fire burn you:
     A long love sat in an unwilling breast.
You could turn men into a thousand figures,
     You could not turn the laws of your own mind.

270

Diceris his etiam, cum iam discedere vellet,
     Dulichium verbis detinuisse ducem:
'Non ego, quod primo, memini, sperare solebam,
     Iam precor, ut coniunx tu meus esse velis;
Et tamen, ut coniunx essem tua, digna videbar,

You are said also, when he already wished to depart,
     to have detained the Dulichian leader with words:
'I do not now pray—what at first, I recall, I was wont to hope—
     that you should wish to be my husband;
and yet I seemed worthy to be your spouse,

275

     Quod dea, quod magni filia Solis eram.
Ne properes, oro; spatium pro munere posco:
     Quid minus optari per mea vota potest?
Et freta mota vides, et debes illa timere:
     Utilior velis postmodo ventus erit.

     That I was a goddess, that I was the daughter of great Sol.
Do not hasten, I beg; I ask for a space as a gift:
     What less can be asked through my vows?
And you see the seas stirred, and you ought to fear them:
     A wind more useful to your sails will be afterward.

280

Quae tibi causa fugae? non hic nova Troia resurgit,
     Non aliquis socios rursus ad arma vocat.
Hic amor et pax est, in qua male vulneror una,
     Tutaque sub regno terra futura tuo est.'
Illa loquebatur, navem solvebat Ulixes:

What cause for flight have you? Here no new Troy rises again,
     Nor does anyone call the allies again to arms.
Here are love and peace, in which I alone am ill-wounded,
     And the land will be safe under your reign.'
She was speaking, Ulysses was loosing the ship:

285

     Inrita cum velis verba tulere noti.
Ardet et adsuetas Circe decurrit ad artes,
     Nec tamen est illis adtenuatus amor.
Ergo quisquis opem nostra tibi poscis ab arte,
     Deme veneficiis carminibusque fidem.                290
Si te causa potens domina retinebit in Urbe,
     Accipe, consilium quod sit in Urbe meum.
Optimus ille sui vindex, laedentia pectus
     Vincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel.
Sed cui tantum animi est, illum mirabor et ipse,

     The south winds, with the sails, carried off ineffectual words.
Circe burns and resorts to her accustomed arts,
     Nor, however, is love attenuated by them.
Therefore, whoever you are, if you seek help for yourself from our art,
     Take away faith from witchcraft and incantations.                290
If a powerful cause—a mistress—will keep you in the City,
     Accept the counsel that is mine in the City.
He is the best, avenger of himself, who has broken the bonds wounding his breast,
     and has grieved but once.
But he who has so much spirit, him I myself will admire,

295

     Et dicam 'monitis non eget iste meis.'
Tu mihi, qui, quod amas, aegre dediscis amare,
     Nec potes, et velles posse, docendus eris.
Saepe refer tecum sceleratae facta puellae,
     Et pone ante oculos omnia damna tuos.

     And I will say, 'he has no need of my monitions.'
You, who, what you love, can hardly unlearn to love,
     and cannot, though you would wish to be able, must be taught.
Often recall to yourself the deeds of the wicked girl,
     and set before your eyes all your losses.

300

'Illud et illud habet, nec ea contenta rapina est:
     Sub titulum nostros misit avara lares.
Sic mihi iuravit, sic me iurata fefellit,
     Ante suas quotiens passa iacere fores!
Diligit ipsa alios, a me fastidit amari;

'She has this and that, nor is she content with that rapine:
     Under the auction placard the greedy woman has sent our household-gods.
Thus she swore to me, thus—having sworn—she deceived me,
     how many times she allowed me to lie before her own doors!
She loves others; she disdains to be loved by me;

305

     Institor, heu, noctes, quas mihi non dat, habet!'
Haec tibi per totos inacescant omnia sensus:
     Haec refer, hinc odii semina quaere tui.
Atque utinam possis etiam facundus in illis
     Esse! dole tantum, sponte disertus eris.

     Peddler, alas—he has the nights she does not give to me!'
Let all this glow through your every sense:
     Relate these things; from here seek the seeds of your odium.
And would that you could even be eloquent in them
     Be! Only grieve; you will be eloquent of your own accord.

310

Haeserat in quadam nuper mea cura puella:
     Conveniens animo non erat illa meo:
Curabar propriis aeger Podalirius herbis,
     Et, fateor, medicus turpiter aeger eram.
Profuit adsidue vitiis insistere amicae,

A certain girl had lately clung fast among my cares:
     She was not fitting to my mind:
I, sick, a Podalirius, was being treated by my own herbs,
     And, I confess, as a physician I was shamefully ill.
It profited to insist assiduously on my mistress’s vices,

315

     Idque mihi factum saepe salubre fuit.
'Quam mala' dicebam 'nostrae sunt crura puellae!'
     Nec tamen, ut vere confiteamur, erant.
'Brachia quam non sunt nostrae formosa puellae!'
     Et tamen, ut vere confiteamur, erant.

     And that proved often salutary for me.
'How bad,' I would say, 'are our girl's legs!'
     And yet, to confess truly, they were not.
'How unshapely are our girl's arms!'
     And yet, to confess truly, they were.

320

'Quam brevis est!' nec erat; 'quam multum poscit amantem!'
     Haec odio venit maxima causa meo.
Et mala sunt vicina bonis; errore sub illo
     Pro vitio virtus crimina saepe tulit.
Qua potes, in peius dotes deflecte puellae,

'How short she is!'—and she was not; 'how much she demands of her lover!'
     This came as the greatest cause for my hatred.
And evils are neighbors to goods; under that error
     In place of vice, virtue has often borne charges.
In whatever way you can, deflect the girl’s endowments to the worse,

325

     Iudiciumque brevi limite falle tuum.
Turgida, si plena est, si fusca est, nigra vocetur:
     In gracili macies crimen habere potest.
Et poterit dici petulans, quae rustica non est:
     Et poterit dici rustica, siqua proba est.

     And cheat your judgment by a narrow limit.
Let her be called swollen, if she is full; if she is dusky, let her be called black:
     In the slender one, leanness can count as a crime.
And she who is not rustic can be called petulant:
     And, if any is honest, she can be called rustic.

330

Quin etiam, quacumque caret tua femina dote,
     Hanc moveat, blandis usque precare sonis.
Exige uti cantet, siqua est sine voce puella:
     Fac saltet, nescit siqua movere manum.
Barbara sermone est? fac tecum multa loquatur;

Nay even, whatever endowment your woman lacks,
     let this be stirred; beseech continually with coaxing tones.
Require that she sing, if any girl is without a voice:
     make her dance, if any does not know how to move her hand.
Is she barbarian in speech? make her talk much with you;

335

Non didicit chordas tangere? posce lyram.
Durius incedit? fac inambulet; omne papillae
Pectus habent?

Has she not learned to touch the strings? ask for the lyre.
Does she walk too stiffly? make her amble in step; do the nipples
possess the whole breast?

vitium fascia nulla tegat.
Si male dentata est, narra, quod rideat, illi;
Mollibus est oculis? quod fleat illa, refer.

let no fascia cover the defect.
If she is ill-toothed, narrate to her something at which she may laugh;
Has she soft eyes? relate something at which she may weep.

340

Proderit et subito, cum se non finxerit ulli,
     Ad dominam celeres mane tulisse gradus.
Auferimur cultu; gemmis auroque teguntur
     Omnia; pars minima est ipsa puella sui.
Saepe ubi sit, quod ames, inter tam multa requiras;

It will also be to your profit, when she has not fashioned herself for anyone,
     to have borne swift steps to your lady in the morning.
We are carried off by adornment; with gems and gold everything is covered—
     the least part of herself is the girl herself.
Often you may seek where that which you love is, among so many things;

345

     Decipit hac oculos aegide dives Amor.
Improvisus ades, deprendes tutus inermem:
     Infelix vitiis excidet illa suis.
Non tamen huic nimium praecepto credere tutum est:
     Fallit enim multos forma sine arte decens.                350
Tum quoque, compositis cum collinet ora venenis,
     Ad dominae vultus (nec pudor obstet) eas.
Pyxidas invenies et rerum mille colores,
     Et fluere in tepidos oesypa lapsa sinus.
Illa tuas redolent, Phineu, medicamina mensas:

     With this aegis rich Love deceives the eyes.
Come unanticipated, you will catch her safely unarmed:
     Unlucky, she will fall by her own vices.
Yet it is not safe to trust too much in this precept:
     For a comely form without art deceives many.                350
Then too, when she daubs her face with compounded venena,
     Go to the lady’s features (let modesty not stand in the way).
You will find pyxides and a thousand colors of things,
     And oesypa (wool-grease) slipping to flow into warm bosoms.
Those medicamina, Phineus, make your tables reek.

355

     Non semel hinc stomacho nausea facta meo est.
Nunc tibi, quae medio veneris praestemus in usu,
     Eloquar: ex omni est parte fugandus amor.
Multa quidem ex illis pudor est mihi dicere; sed tu
     Ingenio verbis concipe plura meis.

     More than once, from this, nausea has come upon my stomach.
Now to you, what we should render in the mid-usage of Venus,
     I will speak: Love is to be put to flight from every part.
Many indeed of those things I am ashamed to say; but you
     with your ingenuity conceive more than my words.

360

Nuper enim nostros quidam carpsere libellos,
     Quorum censura Musa proterva mea est.
Dummodo sic placeam, dum toto canter in orbe,
     Quamlibet impugnent unus et alter opus.
Ingenium magni livor detractat Homeri:

For recently certain people have carped at my little books,
     by whose censure my saucy Muse is at fault.
Provided that I please thus, so long as I am sung through the whole orb,
     however much one and another may impugn the work.
Envy detracts from the genius of great Homer:

365

     Quisquis es, ex illo, Zoile, nomen habes.
Et tua sacrilegae laniarunt carmina linguae,
     Pertulit huc victos quo duce Troia deos.
Summa petit livor; perflant altissima venti:
     Summa petunt dextra fulmina missa Iovis.

     Whoever you are, Zoilus, you have your name from that man.
And sacrilegious tongues have torn even your songs,
     of him under whose leading Troy carried hither her conquered gods.
Envy seeks the highest; the winds blow through the loftiest things:
     the thunderbolts, sent from Jove’s right hand, aim at the heights.

370

At tu, quicumque es, quem nostra licentia laedit,
     Si sapis, ad numeros exige quidque suos.
Fortia Maeonio gaudent pede bella referri;
     Deliciis illic quis locus esse potest?
Grande sonant tragici; tragicos decet ira cothurnos:

But you, whoever you are, whom my license offends,
     If you are wise, bring each thing to its proper numbers.
Strong wars rejoice to be retold in the Maeonian foot;
     What place can there be there for delights?
The tragic poets sound grand; wrath befits the tragic buskins:

375

     Usibus e mediis soccus habendus erit.
Liber in adversos hostes stringatur iambus,
     Seu celer, extremum seu trahat ille pedem.
Blanda pharetratos Elegia cantet Amores,
     Et levis arbitrio ludat amica suo.

     For uses of the middle, the soccus will have to be employed.
Let the free iambus be drawn against opposing enemies,
     whether swift, or whether it drag its last foot.
Let coaxing Elegy sing the quiver-bearing Loves,
     and let the light girlfriend play at her own discretion.

380

Callimachi numeris non est dicendus Achilles,
     Cydippe non est oris, Homere, tui.
Quis feret Andromaches peragentem Thaida partes?
     Peccet, in Andromache Thaida quisquis agat.
Thais in arte mea est; lascivia libera nostra est;

Achilles is not to be told in Callimachus’s measures,
     Cydippe does not belong to your mouth, Homer.
Who will endure a Thais performing Andromache’s parts?
     Let him err, whoever would act a Thais in Andromache.
Thais is in my art; our lasciviousness is free.

385

     Nil mihi cum vitta; Thais in arte mea est.
Si mea materiae respondet Musa iocosae,
     Vicimus, et falsi criminis acta rea est.
Rumpere, Livor edax: magnum iam nomen habemus;
     Maius erit, tantum quo pede coepit eat.

     Nothing to me with the fillet; Thais is in my art.
If my jocose Muse responds to her material,
     We have conquered, and the false charge stands arraigned.
Burst, ravenous Envy: already we have a great name;
     It will be greater, only let it go with the pace with which it began.

390

Sed nimium properas: vivam modo, plura dolebis;
     Et capiunt animi carmina multa mei.
Nam iuvat et studium famae mihi crevit honore;
     Principio clivi noster anhelat equus.
Tantum se nobis elegi debere fatentur,

But you are hurrying too much: only let me live, you will grieve more;
     And my mind takes many poems.
For it delights me, and my study of fame has grown with honor;
     At the beginning of the slope our horse pants.
So much the elegies confess that they owe to us,

395

     Quantum Vergilio nobile debet epos.
Hactenus invidiae respondimus: attrahe lora
     Fortius, et gyro curre, poeta, tuo.
Ergo ubi concubitus et opus iuvenale petetur,
     Et prope promissae tempora noctis erunt,

     How much the noble epic owes to Vergil.
Thus far we have responded to envy: draw the reins
     more strongly, and run, poet, in your own circle.
Therefore, when coupling and the youthful work will be sought,
     and the time of the promised night will be near,

400

Gaudia ne dominae, pleno si corpore sumes,
     Te capiant, ineas quamlibet ante velim;
Quamlibet invenias, in qua tua prima voluptas
     Desinat: a prima proxima segnis erit.
Sustentata venus gratissima; frigore soles,

Do not, if you take your mistress’s joys with a full body,
     let them seize you; I would rather you enter beforehand as much as you please;
Whatever one you may find, in whom your first pleasure
     may end: the next, after the first, will be sluggish.
Venus sustained is most gratifying; by cold you are

405

     Sole iuvant umbrae, grata fit unda siti.
Et pudet, et dicam: venerem quoque iunge figura,
     Qua minime iungi quamque decere putas.
Nec labor efficere est: rarae sibi vera fatentur,
     Et nihil est, quod se dedecuisse putent.                410
Tunc etiam iubeo totas aperire fenestras,
     Turpiaque admisso membra notare die.
At simul ad metas venit finita voluptas,
     Lassaque cum tota corpora mente iacent,
Dum piget, et malis nullam tetigisse puellam,

     Shades please in the sun; a wave becomes welcome to thirst.
And I am ashamed, and I will say it: join Venus also with a figure
     with which you think union least proper and least seemly.
Nor is it a labor to bring it about: few confess the truth to themselves,
     and there is nothing that they think has discredited them.              410
Then I even order the windows to be opened wholly,
     and to note the shameful limbs with the day admitted.
But as soon as finished pleasure comes to its goal,
     and the bodies lie weary, the whole mind with them,
while you feel repugnance, and would prefer to have touched no girl,

415

     Tacturusque tibi non videare diu,
Tunc animo signa, quaecumque in corpore menda est,
     Luminaque in vitiis illius usque tene.
Forsitan haec aliquis (nam sunt quoque) parva vocabit,
     Sed, quae non prosunt singula, multa iuvant.

     And, when you are about to touch her, do not seem so to yourself for long,
Then mark in your mind whatever blemish there is upon her body,
     and keep your eyes continually on her faults.
Perhaps someone (for there are such men too) will call these things trifles,
     but what does not help singly, helps when many.

420

Parva necat morsu spatiosum vipera taurum:
     A cane non magno saepe tenetur aper.
Tu tantum numero pugna, praeceptaque in unum
     Contrahe: de multis grandis acervus erit.
Sed quoniam totidem mores totidemque figurae,

A small viper kills a huge bull with a bite:
     A boar is often held by no great dog.
You only wage war with number, and contract the precepts into one;
     Contract them: from many there will be a grand heap.
But since there are as many mores and as many figures,

425

     Non sunt iudiciis omnia danda meis.
Quo tua non possunt offendi pectora facto,
     Forsitan hoc alio iudice crimen erit.
Ille quod obscenas in aperto corpore partes
     Viderat, in cursu qui fuit, haesit amor:

     Not everything is to be entrusted to my judgments.
By a deed whereby your heart cannot be offended,
     perhaps this will be a crime under another judge.
     He, because he had seen the obscene parts on a body laid bare,
     love, which was in mid-course, stuck fast:

430

Ille quod a Veneris rebus surgente puella
     Vidit in inmundo signa pudenda toro.
Luditis, o siquos potuerunt ista movere:
     Adflarant tepidae pectora vestra faces.
Adtrahat ille puer contentos fortius arcus:

He—because, with the girl rising from the affairs of Venus,
     saw shameful signs on the unclean couch.
You are toying, O—if these things have been able to move anyone:
     the warm torches would have breathed upon your breasts.
Let that boy draw his tightly-bent bows more strongly:

435

     Saucia maiorem turba petetis opem.
Quid, qui clam latuit reddente obscena puella,
     Et vidit, quae mos ipse videre vetat?
Di melius, quam nos moneamus talia quemquam!
     Ut prosint, non sunt expedienda tamen.                440
Hortor et, ut pariter binas habeatis amicas
     (Fortior est, plures siquis habere potest):
Secta bipertito cum mens discurrit utroque,
     Alterius vires subtrahit alter amor.
Grandia per multos tenuantur flumina rivos,

     Wounded, you the throng will seek greater aid.
What of the man who secretly lay hidden, the girl giving forth obscenities,
     and saw what custom itself forbids to see?
May the gods grant better, than that we should admonish anyone about such things!
     Though they may profit, nevertheless they are not to be expounded.                440
I also urge that you have two mistresses at the same time
     (He is stronger, if anyone can have more):
When the mind, cleft in two, runs about to each side,
     the one love subtracts the forces of the other.
Great rivers are thinned through many rivulets,

445

     Saevaque diducto stipite flamma perit.
Non satis una tenet ceratas ancora puppes,
     Nec satis est liquidis unicus hamus aquis:
Qui sibi iam pridem solacia bina paravit,
     Iam pridem summa victor in arce fuit.

     And the savage flame perishes with the log split apart.
A single anchor does not hold the waxed ships sufficiently,
     Nor is a lone hook sufficient in the liquid waters:
He who for himself long since prepared twin solaces,
     Has long since been a victor on the summit of the citadel.

450

At tibi, qui fueris dominae male creditus uni,
     Nunc saltem novus est inveniendus amor.
Pasiphaes Minos in Procride perdidit ignes:
     Cessit ab Idaea coniuge victa prior.
Amphilochi frater ne Phegida semper amaret,

But for you, who have been ill-believed by one mistress,
     now at least a novel love must be found.
Pasiphae’s Minos lost his fires in Procris:
     the former gave way, with the Idaean consort conquered.
Amphilochus’s brother, lest he should always love the Phegian woman,

455

     Calliroe fecit parte recepta tori.
Et Parin Oenone summos tenuisset ad annos,
     Si non Oebalia paelice laesa foret.
Coniugis Odrysio placuisset forma tyranno:
     Sed melior clausae forma sororis erat.

     Callirhoe brought it to pass, a share of the couch recovered.
And Oenone would have held Paris to his utmost years,
     if she had not been wronged by the Oebalian paramour.
The beauty of his wife would have pleased the Odrysian tyrant:
     but the beauty of the shut-away sister was better.

460

Quid moror exemplis, quorum me turba fatigat?
     Successore novo vincitur omnis amor.
Fortius e multis mater desiderat unum,
     Quam quem flens clamat 'tu mihi solus eras.'
Ac ne forte putes nova me tibi condere iura

Why do I linger over examples, whose throng wearies me?
     Every love is conquered by a new successor.
A mother longs more strongly for one from among many,
     than for him whom, weeping, she cries, 'you were my only.'
And lest by chance you think that I am establishing new laws for you

465

     (Atque utinam inventi gloria nostra foret!),
Vidit ut Atrides (quid enim non ille videret,
     Cuius in arbitrio Graecia tota fuit?)
Marte suo captam Chryseida, victor amabat:
     At senior stulte flebat ubique pater.

     (And would that the glory of the discovery were ours!),
As the Atrides saw (for what indeed would that man not see,
     in whose arbitration all Greece was?)
Chryseis, captured by his own Mars, the victor loved:
     but the elder father foolishly wept everywhere.

470

Quid lacrimas, odiose senex? bene convenit illis:
     Officio natam laedis, inepte, tuo.
Quam postquam reddi Calchas, ope tutus Achillis,
     Iusserat, et patria est illa recepta domo,
'Est' ait Atrides 'illius proxima forma,

Why do you weep, odious old man? well do they befit them:
     By your office you wound your daughter, inept one.
After Calchas, safe by the aid of Achilles, had ordered her to be returned,
     and she was received back into her native home,
'There is,' says Atrides, 'a form nearest to hers,'

475

     Et, si prima sinat syllaba, nomen idem:
Hanc mihi, si sapiat, per se concedat Achilles:
     Si minus, imperium sentiat ille meum.
Quod siquis vestrum factum hoc incusat, Achivi,
     Est aliquid valida sceptra tenere manu.

     And, if the first syllable allows, the same name:
Let Achilles, if he be wise, concede her to me of his own accord:
     If not, let him feel my authority.
But if any of you, Achaeans, accuses this deed,
     There is something in holding the scepter with a strong hand.

480

Nam si rex ego sum, nec mecum dormiat ulla,
     In mea Thersites regna, licebit, eat.'
Dixit, et hanc habuit solacia magna prioris,
     Et posita est cura cura repulsa nova.
Ergo adsume novas auctore Agamemnone flammas,

For if I am king, and no woman sleeps with me,
     into my kingdoms let Thersites, if he please, go.'
He said it, and he had this as great solace of the former wrong,
     and a care was set down, the new care having repelled the old.
Therefore assume new flames, with Agamemnon as author,

485

     Ut tuus in bivio distineatur amor.
Quaeris, ubi invenias? artes tu perlege nostras:
     Plena puellarum iam tibi navis erit.
Quod siquid praecepta valent mea, siquid Apollo
     Utile mortales perdocet ore meo,

     so that your love may be kept at a crossroad.
Do you ask where you may find them? Read through our arts:
     your ship will now be full of girls.
But if my precepts avail anything, if Apollo
     instructs mortals in anything useful by my mouth,

490

Quamvis infelix media torreberis Aetna,
     Frigidior glacie fac videare tuae:
Et sanum simula, ne, siquid forte dolebis,
     Sentiat; et ride, cum tibi flendus eris.
Non ego te iubeo medias abrumpere curas:

Although unlucky, you will be roasted in the midst of Etna,
     make yourself seem colder than your own ice:
and feign yourself sound, lest, if by chance you are pained at all,
     she perceive it; and laugh, when you are to be lamented.
I do not order you to break off your cares mid-course:

495

     Non sunt imperii tam fera iussa mei.
Quod non es, simula, positosque imitare furores:
     Sic facies vere, quod meditatus eris.
Saepe ego, ne biberem, volui dormire videri:
     Dum videor, somno lumina victa dedi:

     The commands of my empire are not so savage.
What you are not, simulate, and imitate frenzies laid aside:
     Thus you will truly do what you will have practiced.
Often I, so that I might not drink, wished to seem to sleep:
     while I seemed so, I gave my eyes, conquered by sleep:

500

Deceptum risi, qui se simularat amare,
     In laqueos auceps decideratque suos.
Intrat amor mentes usu, dediscitur usu:
     Qui poterit sanum fingere, sanus erit.
Dixerit, ut venias: pacta tibi nocte venito;

I laughed at the one deceived, who had pretended to love;
     the bird-catcher had fallen into his own snares.
Love enters minds by use; by use it is unlearned:
     he who will be able to feign being sound will be sound.
He has said that you should come: come on the agreed night;

505

     Veneris, et fuerit ianua clausa: feres.
Nec dic blanditias, nec fac convicia posti,
     Nec latus in duro limine pone tuum.
Postera lux aderit: careant tua verba querellis,
     Et nulla in vultu signa dolentis habe.

     You will come, and if the door has been closed: bear it.
Do not speak blandishments, nor make revilings at the doorpost,
     Nor set your side on the hard threshold.
The next light will come: let your words be without complaints,
     And have no signs of one in pain on your face.

510

Iam ponet fastus, cum te languere videbit:
     Hoc etiam nostra munus ab arte feres.
Te quoque falle tamen, nec sit tibi finis amandi
     Propositus: frenis saepe repugnat equus.
Utilitas lateat; quod non profitebere, fiet:

Now she will set aside her haughtiness, when she sees you languish:
     This too you will bear as a gift from our art.
Yet deceive yourself as well, and let there be no proposed end of loving
     set: a horse often fights against the reins.
Let the utility lie hidden; what you will not profess will come to pass:

515

     Quae nimis apparent retia, vitat avis.
Nec sibi tam placeat, nec te contemnere possit;
     Sume animos, animis cedat ut illa tuis.
Ianua forte patet? quamvis revocabere, transi.
     Est data nox? dubita nocte venire data.

     The bird shuns nets that are too apparent.
Nor let her be so pleased with herself, nor be able to contemn you;
     Assume courage, that she may cede to your courage.
Is the door perchance open? though you will be called back, pass through.
     Is a night granted? hesitate to come on the granted night.

520

Posse pati facile est, ubi, si patientia desit,
     Protinus ex facili gaudia ferre licet.
Et quisquam praecepta potest mea dura vocare?
     En, etiam partes conciliantis ago.
Nam quoniam variant animi, variabimus artes;

To be able to endure is easy, where, if patience be lacking,
     straightway it is permitted to carry off joys with ease.
And can anyone call my precepts hard?
     Lo, I even play the part of a conciliator.
For since minds vary, we will vary our arts.

525

     Mille mali species, mille salutis erunt.
Corpora vix ferro quaedam sanantur acuto:
     Auxilium multis sucus et herba fuit.
Mollior es, neque abire potes, vinctusque teneris,
     Et tua saevus Amor sub pede colla premit?

     A thousand forms of ill, a thousand of salvation will be.
Bodies are scarcely healed by sharp iron:
     juice and herb have been a help to many.
You are softer, nor can you depart, and bound by tender bonds,
     and does savage Love press your neck beneath his foot?

530

Desine luctari: referant tua carbasa venti,
     Quaque vocant fluctus, hac tibi remus eat.
Explenda est sitis ista tibi, quo perditus ardes;
     Cedimus; e medio iam licet amne bibas:
Sed bibe plus etiam, quam quod praecordia poscunt,

Cease to struggle: let the winds carry your sails,
     Wherever the waves summon, let your oar go that way.
That thirst must be filled for you, wherein, undone, you burn;
     We yield; now you may drink from the middle of the stream:
But drink even more than what your precordia demand,

535

     Gutture fac pleno sumpta redundet aqua.
I, fruere usque tua, nullo prohibente, puella:
     Illa tibi noctes auferat, illa dies.
Taedia quaere mali: faciunt et taedia finem.
     Iam quoque, cum credes posse carere, mane,

     Make the water you have taken overflow from a full throat.
Go, enjoy your girl to the full, with no one prohibiting:
     let her take from you nights, let her take days.
Seek the tedium of the evil: tedium too makes an end.
     Even now, when you believe you can do without, stay,

540

Dum bene te cumules et copia tollat amorem,
     Et fastidita non iuvet esse domo.
Fit quoque longus amor, quem diffidentia nutrit:
     Hunc tu si quaeres ponere, pone metum.
Qui timet, ut sua sit, ne quis sibi detrahat illam,

While you fill yourself well, and abundance lifts love away,
     and, once the home is surfeited, it is no joy to be at home.
A love, too, becomes long, which diffidence nourishes:
     if you seek to set this one down, set down fear.
He who fears that she be his, lest anyone drag her away from him,

545

     Ille Machaonia vix ope sanus erit.
Plus amat e natis mater plerumque duobus,
     Pro cuius reditu, quod gerit arma, timet.
Est prope Collinam templum venerabile portam;
     Inposuit templo nomina celsus Eryx:

     He will scarcely be sound even by Machaonian aid.
More often a mother loves, out of her two sons,
     the one for whose return she fears, because he bears arms.
Near the Colline Gate there is a venerable temple;
     Lofty Eryx has set his name upon the temple:

550

Est illic Lethaeus Amor, qui pectora sanat,
     Inque suas gelidam lampadas addit aquam.
Illic et iuvenes votis oblivia poscunt,
     Et siqua est duro capta puella viro.
Is mihi sic dixit (dubito, verusne Cupido,

There is there a Lethean Love, who heals hearts,
     and into his own torches he adds gelid water.
There too youths ask by vows for oblivions,
     and if there is any girl captured by a hard man.
He thus said to me (I doubt whether the true Cupid,

555

     An somnus fuerit: sed puto, somnus erat)
'O qui sollicitos modo das, modo demis amores,
     Adice praeceptis hoc quoque, Naso, tuis.
Ad mala quisque animum referat sua, ponet amorem;
     Omnibus illa deus plusve minusve dedit.                560
Qui Puteal Ianumque timet celeresque Kalendas,
     Torqueat hunc aeris mutua summa sui;
Cui durus pater est, ut voto cetera cedant,
     Huic pater ante oculos durus habendus erit;
Hic male dotata pauper cum coniuge vivit,

     Or whether it was a dream; but I think it was sleep)
'O you who now give, now take away anxious loves,
     Add this too to your precepts, Naso.
Let each man refer his mind to his own evils; he will lay down love;
     The god has given those to all, more or less.                560
He who fears the Puteal and Janus and the swift Kalends,
     Let the borrowed sum of his cash rack him;
He who has a hard father, so that the rest may yield to his vow,
     Let him hold that hard father before his eyes;
This man lives poor with an ill-dowered spouse,

565

     Uxorem fato credat obesse suo.
Est tibi rure bono generosae fertilis uvae
     Vinea? ne nascens usta sit uva, time.
Ille habet in reditu navim: mare semper iniquum
     Cogitet et damno litora foeda suo.

     Let him believe a wife to be adverse to his fate.
Do you have, in good countryside, a vineyard fertile in noble grape
     A vineyard? Fear lest the nascent grape be scorched.
He has a ship on the return: let him always think the sea adverse
     and the shores foul with his own damage.

570

Filius hunc miles, te filia nubilis angat;
     Et quis non causas mille doloris habet?
Ut posses odisse tuam, Pari, funera fratrum
     Debueras oculis substituisse tuis.'
Plura loquebatur: placidum puerilis imago

Let a soldier-son distress that man; let a nubile daughter distress you;
     And who does not have a thousand causes of grief?
So that you might be able to hate your own wife, Paris, the funerals of your brothers
     you ought to have set before your eyes.'
He was saying more: the placid image of the boy

575

     Destituit somnum, si modo somnus erat.
Quid faciam? media navem Palinurus in unda
     Deserit; ignotas cogor inire vias.
Quisquis amas, loca sola nocent, loca sola caveto!
     Quo fugis? in populo tutior esse potes.

     Sleep abandoned me, if indeed it was sleep.
What shall I do? Palinurus deserts the ship in mid-wave;
     I am compelled to enter unknown ways.
Whoever loves, lonely places do harm; beware lonely places!
     Where are you fleeing? Among the people you can be safer.

580

Non tibi secretis (augent secreta furores)
     Est opus: auxilio turba futura tibi est.
Tristis eris, si solus eris, dominaeque relictae
     Ante oculos facies stabit, ut ipsa, tuos.
Tristior idcirco nox est quam tempora Phoebi;

Not for you are seclusions (secrets augment frenzies)
     You have no need of them: a crowd will be a help to you.
You will be sad, if you are alone, and the face of your forsaken mistress
     will stand before your eyes, as if she herself.
Therefore the night is sadder than the times of Phoebus;

585

     Quae relevet luctus, turba sodalis abest.
Nec fuge conloquium, nec sit tibi ianua clausa,
     Nec tenebris vultus flebilis abde tuos.
Semper habe Pyladen aliquem, qui curet Oresten:
     Hic quoque amicitiae non levis usus erit.

     The crowd of comrades, which might relieve grief, is absent.
Nor flee colloquy, nor let your door be closed,
     Nor hide your tearful face in the darkness.
Always have a Pylades, to care for Orestes:
     Here too the use of friendship will be no slight matter.

590

Quid, nisi secretae laeserunt Phyllida silvae?
     Certa necis causa est: incomitata fuit.
Ibat, ut Edono referens trieterica Baccho
     Ire solet fusis barbara turba comis,
Et modo, qua poterat, longum spectabat in aequor,

What, unless the secret woods harmed Phyllis?
     The cause of death is certain: she was unaccompanied.
She went, as one renewing the trieteric rites for Edonian Bacchus,
     as the barbarian throng is wont to go with hair let loose,
and now, so far as she could, she kept gazing out upon the long level sea,

595

     Nunc in harenosa lassa iacebat humo.
'Perfide Demophoon!' surdas clamabat ad undas,
     Ruptaque singultu verba loquentis erant.
Limes erat tenuis longa subnubilus umbra,
     Quo tulit illa suos ad mare saepe pedes.

     Now she, weary, lay on the sandy ground.
'Perfidious Demophoon!' she was shouting to the deaf waves,
     and the speaker’s words were broken by sobbing.
There was a narrow path, dim beneath a long shadow,
     by which she often bore her feet to the sea.

600

Nona terebatur miserae via: 'viderit!' inquit,
     Et spectat zonam pallida facta suam,
Aspicit et ramos; dubitat, refugitque quod audet
     Et timet, et digitos ad sua colla refert.
Sithoni, tum certe vellem non sola fuisses:

The ninth day was being worn away for the wretched woman: ‘Let him see to it!’ she said,
     and, grown pale, she looks at her zone, her girdle,
she looks also at the branches; she hesitates, and shrinks back from what she dares
     and she fears, and brings her fingers to her own neck.
Sithonian maid, then surely I would that you had not been alone:

605

     Non flesset positis Phyllida silva comis.
Phyllidis exemplo nimium secreta timete,
     Laese vir a domina, laesa puella viro.
Praestiterat iuvenis quidquid mea Musa iubebat,
     Inque suae portu paene salutis erat:

     The forest would not have wept for Phyllis, with its tresses laid aside.
By Phyllis’s example, fear overly secluded places,
     O man injured by his mistress, O girl injured by her man.
The youth had performed whatever my Muse commanded,
     and he was almost in the harbor of his own salvation:

610

Reccidit, ut cupidos inter devenit amantes,
     Et, quae condiderat, tela resumpsit Amor.
Siquis amas, nec vis, facito contagia vites;
     Haec etiam pecori saepe nocere solent.
Dum spectant laesos oculi, laeduntur et ipsi,

He fell back, when he came among eager lovers,
     And Love resumed the weapons which he had laid away.
If you love, and do not wish it, make sure you avoid contagions;
     These too are often wont to harm the herd.
While the eyes behold the wounded, they themselves are wounded as well,

615

     Multaque corporibus transitione nocent.
In loca nonnumquam siccis arentia glebis
     De prope currenti flumine manat aqua:
Manat amor tectus, si non ab amante recedas;
     Turbaque in hoc omnes ingeniosa sumus.                620
Alter item iam sanus erat; vicinia laesit:
     Occursum dominae non tulit ille suae.
Vulnus in antiquum rediit male firma cicatrix,
     Successumque artes non habuere meae.
Proximus a tectis ignis defenditur aegre;

     And many things harm bodies by transmission.
Into places sometimes parched with dry clods
     From a river running near, water emanates:
Love oozes hidden, if you do not withdraw from the lover;
     And in this we are all ingenious as a throng.                620
Another likewise was already sound; the vicinity harmed:
     He did not bear the encounter of his mistress.
The poorly firm scar went back into the old wound,
     And my arts had no success.
A fire close to the roofs is defended with difficulty;

625

     Utile finitimis abstinuisse locis.
Nec quae ferre solet spatiantem porticus illam,
     Te ferat, officium neve colatur idem.
Quid iuvat admonitu tepidam recalescere mentem?
     Alter, si possis, orbis habendus erit.

     It is useful to have abstained from neighboring places.
Nor let the portico which is wont to bear her strolling,
     carry you; nor let the same service be cultivated.
What does it avail, at an admonition, for a tepid mind to grow warm again?
     Another world, if you can, will have to be had.

630

Non facile esuriens posita retinebere mensa,
     Et multam saliens incitat unda sitim.
Non facile est taurum visa retinere iuvenca,
     Fortis equus visae semper adhinnit equae.
Haec ubi praestiteris, ut tandem litora tangas,

Hungry, you will not easily be held back with the table set,
     And the leaping wave incites much thirst.
It is not easy to restrain a bull at the sight of a heifer,
     A strong horse always whinnies at the sight of a mare.
When you have performed these things, so that at last you may touch the shores,

635

     Non ipsam satis est deseruisse tibi.
Et soror et mater valeant et conscia nutrix,
     Et quisquis dominae pars erit ulla tuae.
Nec veniat servus, nec flens ancillula fictum
     Suppliciter dominae nomine dicat 'ave!'

     It is not enough for you to have deserted her herself.
And let both sister and mother, and the privy nurse, be bidden farewell,
     and whoever will be any part whatsoever of your lady.
Let not a slave come, nor let a weeping little handmaid
     suppliantly say, in the lady’s name, a feigned “hail!”

640

Nec si scire voles, quid agat, tamen, illa, rogabis;
     Perfer! erit lucro lingua retenta tuo.
Tu quoque, qui causam finiti reddis amoris,
     Deque tua domina multa querenda refers,
Parce queri; melius sic ulciscere tacendo,

Nor, even if you wish to know what she is doing, will you nevertheless ask her;
     Endure! a restrained tongue will be a gain to you.
You too, who render the cause of a finished love,
     and report many grievances about your mistress,
forbear to complain; you avenge yourself better thus by keeping silent,

645

     Ut desideriis effluat illa tuis.
Et malim taceas quam te desisse loquaris:
     Qui nimium multis 'non amo' dicit, amat.
Sed meliore fide paulatim extinguitur ignis
     Quam subito; lente desine, tutus eris.

     So that she may flow out of your desires.
And I would rather you be silent than say that you have ceased:
     He who says too often to many, 'I do not love,' loves.
But with better good faith the fire is extinguished gradually
     than suddenly; cease slowly, you will be safe.

650

Flumine perpetuo torrens solet altior ire:
     Sed tamen haec brevis est, illa perennis aqua.
Fallat, et in tenues evanidus exeat auras,
     Perque gradus molles emoriatur amor.
Sed modo dilectam scelus est odisse puellam:

A torrent is wont to go higher than a perpetual river:
     But still this water is brief, that water perennial.
Let it deceive, and, evanescent, pass out into thin air,
     and let love die away by soft degrees.
But for the moment it is a crime to hate the beloved girl:

655

     Exitus ingeniis convenit iste feris.
Non curare sat est: odio qui finit amorem,
     Aut amat, aut aegre desinet esse miser.
Turpe vir et mulier, iuncti modo, protinus hostes;
     Non illas lites Appias ipsa probat.

     This outcome befits savage dispositions.
It is enough not to care: he who finishes love with hatred,
     either loves, or will with difficulty cease to be wretched.
Disgraceful that a man and a woman, only just joined, are straightway enemies;
     Not even Appias herself approves those quarrels.

660

Saepe reas faciunt, et amant; ubi nulla simultas
     Incidit, admonitu liber aberrat amor.
Forte aderam iuveni; dominam lectica tenebat:
     Horrebant saevis omnia verba minis.
Iamque vadaturus 'lectica prodeat' inquit;

Often they make them defendants, and love; when no enmity falls in,
     at an admonition free love wanders astray.
By chance I was with a young man; he was holding back his mistress’s litter:
     all his words bristled with savage threats.
And now, about to vouch to bail, he says, 'let the litter come forth';

665

     Prodierat: visa coniuge mutus erat.
Et manus et manibus duplices cecidere tabellae,
     Venit in amplexus, atque 'ita vincis' ait.
Tutius est aptumque magis discedere pace,
     Nec petere a thalamis litigiosa fora.

     She had come out: at the sight of his wife he was mute.
And both his hands, and from his hands the double tablets, fell,
     He came into embraces, and said, 'thus you win.'
It is safer and more fitting to part in peace,
     And not to seek litigious forums from the bedchambers.

670

Munera quae dederas, habeat sine lite, iubeto:
     Esse solent magno damna minora bono.
Quod si vos aliquis casus conducet in unum,
     Mente memor tota quae damus arma, tene.
Nunc opus est armis; hic, o fortissime, pugna:

Bid that she have the gifts which you had given, without litigation:
     Damages are wont to be less than a great good.
But if some chance shall conduct you two into one,
     hold, with your whole mindful mind, the arms which we give.
Now there is need of arms; here, O bravest, fight:

675

     Vincenda est telo Penthesilea tuo.
Nunc tibi rivalis, nunc durum limen amanti,
     Nunc subeant mediis inrita verba deis.
Nec compone comas, quia sis venturus ad illam,
     Nec toga sit laxo conspicienda sinu.                680
Nulla sit, ut placeas alienae cura puellae;
     Iam facito e multis una sit illa tibi.
Sed quid praecipue nostris conatibus obstet
     Eloquar, exemplo quemque docente suo.
Desinimus tarde, quia nos speramus amari:

     Penthesilea must be vanquished by your weapon.
Now let a rival for you, now the hard threshold for the lover,
     Now let ineffectual words go up to the gods in their midst.
Nor compose your hair, because you are going to come to her,
     Nor let your toga be to be seen with a lax fold.                680
Let there be no concern, that you may please another’s girl;
     Now see to it that from many she alone be the one for you.
But what chiefly stands in the way of our endeavors
     I will speak out, with each one teaching by his own example.
We desist late, because we hope to be loved:

685

     Dum sibi quisque placet, credula turba sumus.
At tu nec voces (quid enim fallacius illis?)
     Crede, nec aeternos pondus habere deos.
Neve puellarum lacrimis moveare, caveto:
     Ut flerent, oculos erudiere suos.

     While each person pleases himself, we are a credulous crowd.
But you, neither voices (for what is more deceitful than they?)
     believe, nor that the eternal gods set any weight on them.
And do not be moved by girls’ tears, beware:
     In order to weep, they have trained their eyes.

690

Artibus innumeris mens oppugnatur amantum,
     Ut lapis aequoreis undique pulsus aquis.
Nec causas aperi, quare divortia malis:
     Nec dic, quid doleas: clam tamen usque dole.
Nec peccata refer, ne diluat: ipse favebis,

By countless arts the mind of lovers is besieged,
     Like a stone beaten on every side by sea-waters.
Nor lay open the causes why you prefer a divorce:
     Nor say what you grieve at; yet grieve continually in secret.
Nor recount the sins, lest he wash them away: you yourself will show favor,

695

     Ut melior causa causa sit illa tua.
Qui silet, est firmus; qui dicit multa puellae
     Probra, satisfieri postulat ille sibi.
Non ego Dulichio furari more sagittas,
     Nec raptas ausim tinguere in amne faces:

     So that that cause of yours may be the better cause.
He who is silent is firm; he who says many reproaches to the girl
     demands that satisfaction be made to himself.
I would not, in the Dulichian manner, steal arrows,
     nor would I dare to tinge the rapt torches in the river:

700

Nec nos purpureas pueri resecabimus alas,
     Nec sacer arte mea laxior arcus erit.
Consilium est, quodcumque cano: parete canenti,
     Tuque, favens coeptis, Phoebe saluber, ades.
Phoebus adest: sonuere lyrae, sonuere pharetrae;

Nor shall we cut back the boy’s purple wings,
     Nor will the sacred bow be slacker by my art.
It is counsel, whatever I sing: obey the singer,
     And you too, Phoebus, health-bringing, favoring the undertakings, be present.
Phoebus is present: the lyres have sounded, the quivers have sounded;

705

     Signa deum nosco per sua: Phoebus adest.
Confer Amyclaeis medicatum vellus aenis
     Murice cum Tyrio; turpius illud erit:
Vos quoque formosis vestras conferte puellas;
     Incipiet dominae quemque pudere suae:                710
Utraque formosae Paridi potuere videri,
     Sed sibi conlatam vicit utramque Venus.
Nec solam faciem, mores quoque confer et artes:
     Tantum iudicio ne tuus obsit amor.
Exiguum est, quod deinde canam; sed profuit illud

     I know the signs of the gods by their own: Phoebus is present.
Compare the dyed fleece in the Amyclaean bronze kettles
     with Tyrian murex; that one will be the shabbier:
You also compare your girls with the beautiful ones;
     each will begin to be ashamed of his own mistress:                710
Either could seem beautiful to Paris,
     but Venus, when compared with herself, vanquished them both.
And not the face alone—compare also character and arts:
     only let not your love hinder your judgment.
Small is what I shall sing next; but it has been useful

715

     Exiguum multis: in quibus ipse fui.
Scripta cave relegas blandae servata puellae:
     Constantes animos scripta relecta movent.
Omnia pone feros (pones invitus) in ignes,
     Et dic 'ardoris sit rogus iste mei.'

     A small thing to many: among whom I myself have been.
Beware lest you re-read the writings kept from your blandishing girl:
     Re-read writings move even constant minds.
Put them all, though unwilling, into the fierce fires,
     and say, 'let that be the pyre of my ardor.'

720

Thestias absentem succendit stipite natum:
     Tu timide flammae perfida verba dabis?
Si potes, et ceras remove: quid imagine muta
     Carperis? hoc periit Laodamia modo.
Et loca saepe nocent; fugito loca conscia vestri

Thestias ignited, with a log, her son who was absent:
     will you, timid one, give perfidious words to the flame?
If you can, remove the waxes too: why are you tormented by a mute
     image? In this way Laodamia perished.
And places often harm; flee the places conscious of you two.

725

     Concubitus; causas illa doloris habent.
'Hic fuit, hic cubuit; thalamo dormivimus illo:
     Hic mihi lasciva gaudia nocte dedit.'
Admonitu refricatur amor, vulnusque novatum
     Scinditur: infirmis culpa pusilla nocet.

     Couplings; those have causes of pain.
'Here he was, here he lay; in that bedchamber we slept:
     here at night he gave me lascivious joys.'
At the reminder love is rubbed afresh, and the wound, renewed,
     is torn open: to the weak, a very small fault does harm.

730

Ut, paene extinctum cinerem si sulpure tangas,
     Vivet et e minimo maximus ignis erit,
Sic, nisi vitaris quidquid renovabit amorem,
     Flamma redardescet, quae modo nulla fuit.
Argolides cuperent fugisse Capherea puppes,

Just as, if you touch almost-extinguished ash with sulphur,
     it will live, and from the minimal a maximal fire will be,
so, unless you avoid whatever will renew love,
     the flame will blaze back, which just now was none.
The Argive ships would have wished to have fled Caphereus,

735

     Teque, senex, luctus ignibus ulte tuos.
Praeterita cautus Niseide navita gaudet:
     Tu loca, quae nimium grata fuere, cave.
Haec tibi sint Syrtes: haec Acroceraunia vita:
     Hic vomit epotas dira Charybdis aquas.

     And you, old man, having avenged your griefs by fires.
The cautious sailor rejoices, with the Niseian maid passed:
     You, beware the places that were too pleasing.
Let these be for you the Syrtes: avoid these Acroceraunian rocks:
     Here dire Charybdis vomits the waters she has quaffed.

740

Sunt quae non possunt aliquo cogente iuberi,
     Saepe tamen casu facta iuvare solent.
Perdat opes Phaedra, parces, Neptune, nepoti,
     Nec faciet pavidos taurus avitus equos.
Cnosida fecisses inopem, sapienter amasset:

There are things that cannot be commanded by any compulsion,
     yet things done by chance are often wont to help.
Let Phaedra lose her wealth; you will spare, Neptune, your grandson,
     nor will the ancestral bull make the horses fearful.
Had you made the Cnossian woman poor, she would have loved wisely:

745

     Divitiis alitur luxuriosus amor.
Cur nemo est, Hecalen, nulla est, quae ceperit Iron?
     Nempe quod alter egens, altera pauper erat.
Non habet, unde suum paupertas pascat amorem:
     Non tamen hoc tanti est, pauper ut esse velis.

     Luxurious love is nourished by riches.
Why is there no man, Hecale, no woman, who has taken Irus?
     Surely because the one was needy, the other was poor.
Poverty does not have the means whereby it might feed its love:
     Yet this is not worth so much that you should wish to be poor.

750

At tanti tibi sit non indulgere theatris,
     Dum bene de vacuo pectore cedat amor.
Enervant animos citharae lotosque lyraeque
     Et vox et numeris brachia mota suis.
Illic adsidue ficti saltantur amantes:

But let it be worth so much to you not to indulge the theaters,
     so long as love yields well from an emptied breast.
Citharas and lotus-pipes and lyres enervate the spirits
     and the voice, and arms moved to their own measures.
There, continually, feigned lovers are danced:

755

     Quod caveas, actor, quam iuvet, arte docet.
Eloquar invitus: teneros ne tange poetas!
     Summoveo dotes impius ipse meas.
Callimachum fugito: non est inimicus Amori:
     Et cum Callimacho tu quoque, Coe, noces.

     What you should beware, actor, how it delights, the art teaches.
I will speak unwillingly: do not touch the tender poets!
     I, impious, myself remove my own endowments.
Shun Callimachus: he is not an enemy to Love;
     and you too, Coan, together with Callimachus, do harm.

760

Me certe Sappho meliorem fecit amicae,
     Nec rigidos mores Teia Musa dedit.
Carmina quis potuit tuto legisse Tibulli,
     Vel tua, cuius opus Cynthia sola fuit?
Quis poterit lecto durus discedere Gallo?

Surely Sappho made me better for a girlfriend,
     Nor did the Teian Muse give rigid mores.
Who could safely have read the songs of Tibullus,
     Or yours, whose work was Cynthia alone?
Who will be able, hard-hearted, to depart when Gallus has been read?

765

     Et mea nescio quid carmina tale sonant.
Quod nisi dux operis vatem frustratur Apollo,
     Aemulus est nostri maxima causa mali:
At tu rivalem noli tibi fingere quemquam,
     Inque suo solam crede iacere toro.

     And my songs too, I know not how, sound somewhat the same.
Unless Apollo, leader of the work, deceives the bard,
     a rival is the greatest cause of our ill:
     But you, do not fashion for yourself any rival,
     and believe that she lies alone upon her own bed.

770

Acrius Hermionen ideo dilexit Orestes,
     Esse quod alterius coeperat illa viri.
Quid, Menelae, doles? ibas sine coniuge Creten,
     Et poteras nupta lentus abesse tua.
Ut Paris hanc rapuit, nunc demum uxore carere

More keenly did Orestes love Hermione for this reason,
     because she had begun to be another man’s wife.
Why, Menelaus, do you grieve? you were going to Crete without your spouse,
     and, indifferent, you could be away from your bride.
As Paris carried her off, only now at last do you lack a wife

775

     Non potes: alterius crevit amore tuus.
Hoc et in abducta Briseide flebat Achilles,
     Illam Plisthenio gaudia ferre viro;
Nec frustra flebat, mihi credite: fecit Atrides,
     Quod si non faceret, turpiter esset iners.

     You cannot: yours has grown by another’s love.
This too Achilles wept over, with Briseis abducted,
     that she was bringing joys to the Plisthenian man;
Nor did he weep in vain, believe me: the Atrides did it,
     and if he did not do it, he would be shamefully inert.

780

Certe ego fecissem, nec sum sapientior illo:
     Invidiae fructus maximus ille fuit.
Nam sibi quod numquam tactam Briseida iurat
     Per sceptrum, sceptrum non putat esse deos.
Di faciant, possis dominae transire relictae

Surely I would have done it, nor am I wiser than he:
     that was the greatest fruit of envy.
For he swears to himself that Briseis was never touched
     by the scepter—he does not reckon the scepter to be gods.
May the gods bring it about that you can get over the mistress left behind

785

     Limina, proposito sufficiantque pedes.
Et poteris; modo velle tene: nunc fortiter ire,
     Nunc opus est celeri subdere calcar equo.
Illo Lotophagos, illo Sirenas in antro
     Esse puta; remis adice vela tuis.

     Let the thresholds be sufficient, and your feet, for your purpose.
And you will be able; only keep willing: now go bravely,
     Now there is need to put the spur beneath the swift horse.
There think the Lotus-eaters, there the Sirens in the cave
     Think them there; add sails to your oars.

790

Hunc quoque, quo quondam nimium rivale dolebas,
     Vellem desineres hostis habere loco.
At certe, quamvis odio remanente, saluta;
     Oscula cum poteris iam dare, sanus eris.
Ecce, cibos etiam, medicinae fungar ut omni

This one too, whom once you grieved over excessively as a rival,
     I would wish you to cease to hold in the place of an enemy.
But at least, although the hatred remains, greet him;
     when you can now give kisses, you will be sound.
Lo, even food—so that I may perform the function of every medicine

795

     Munere, quos fugias quosque sequare, dabo.
Daunius, an Libycis bulbus tibi missus ab oris,
     An veniat Megaris, noxius omnis erit.
Nec minus erucas aptum vitare salaces,
     Et quicquid Veneri corpora nostra parat.

     As a service, I will give which you should flee and which you should follow.
A Daunian bulb, or one sent to you from Libyan shores,
     or if it should come from Megara, every bulb will be noxious.
No less it is apt to avoid the salacious rocket,
     and whatever prepares our bodies for Venus.

800

Utilius sumas acuentes lumina rutas,
     Et quidquid Veneri corpora nostra negat.
Quid tibi praecipiam de Bacchi munere, quaeris?
     Spe brevius monitis expediere meis.
Vina parant animum Veneri, nisi plurima sumas

More usefully take rues that sharpen the eyes,
     and whatever denies our bodies to Venus.
What should I prescribe to you about the gift of Bacchus, you ask?
     Hope has dispatched it more briefly than my admonitions.
Wines prepare the mind for Venus, unless you take too much

805

     Et stupeant multo corda sepulta mero.
Nutritur vento, vento restinguitur ignis:
     Lenis alit flammas, grandior aura necat.
Aut nulla ebrietas, aut tanta sit, ut tibi curas
     Eripiat; siqua est inter utrumque, nocet.

     And let hearts, buried in much wine, be stupefied.
Fire is nourished by wind; by wind it is extinguished:
     A gentle breeze nourishes the flames, a greater breath kills.
Either let there be no ebriety, or let it be so great that it may snatch
     your cares away; if there is any between the two, it harms.

810

Hoc opus exegi: fessae date serta carinae;
Contigimus portus, quo mihi cursus erat.
Postmodo reddetis sacro pia vota poetae,
Carmine sanati femina virque meo.

I have completed this work: give garlands to the weary keel;
We have reached the harbor to which my course was bound.
Afterward you will render pious vows to the sacred poet,
Healed by my song, woman and man.