Ovid: HEROIDES

At tibi Colchorum, memini, regina vacavi,
     ars mea cum peteres ut tibi ferret opem!
tunc quae dispensant mortalia fila sorores,
     debuerant fusos evoluisse meos;
tum potui Medea mori bene! quidquid ab illo
     produxi vitae tempore, poena fuit.

But for you, I, queen of the Colchians, I remember, made myself free,
     when you were seeking that my art might bear aid to you!
then the sisters who dispense the mortal threads,
     ought to have unrolled my spindles;
then could I, Medea, have died well! whatever of life I drew out from that time,
     was a punishment.

Ei mihi! cur umquam iuvenalibus acta lacertis
Phrixeam petiit Pelias arbor ovem?
cur umquam Colchi Magnetida vidimus Argon
turbaque Phasiacam Graia bibistis aquam?

Alas for me! why ever, driven by youthful arms,
did the Pelian tree seek the Phrixean sheep?
why ever did we Colchians behold the Magnetian Argo,
and you Greek throng drink the Phasian water?

cur mihi plus aequo flavi placuere capilli
     et decor et linguae gratia ficta tuae?
aut, semel in nostras quoniam nova puppis harenas
     venerat audacis attuleratque viros,
isset anhelatos non praemedicatus in ignes
     inmemor Aesonides oraque adusta boum!
semina iecisset totidem sevisset et hostes,
     ut caderet cultu cultor ab ipse suo!

why did blond hair please me more than was right,
     and your beauty and the feigned grace of your tongue?
or, since once the new ship had come to our sands
     and had brought the daring men,
would that the son of Aeson, not pre-medicated, had gone into the panting fires,
     forgetful, and into the scorched mouths of the bulls!
he would have cast the seeds and likewise have sown just so many enemies,
     so that the cultivator might fall by his own cultivation!

quantum perfidiae tecum, scelerate, perisset!
dempta forent capiti quam mala multa meo!
Est aliqua ingrato meritum exprobrare voluptas;
hac fruar, haec de te gaudia sola feram.

how much perfidy would have perished with you, you wicked man!
how many evils would have been taken away from my head!
There is some pleasure to reproach to an ingrate the merit rendered;
with this I shall enjoy, these the only joys about you I will bear.

iussus inexpertam Colchos advertere puppim
     intrasti patriae regna beata meae.
hoc illic Medea fui, nova nupta quod hic est;
     quam pater est illi, tam mihi dives erat.
hic Ephyren bimarem, Scythia tenus ille nivosa
     omne tenet, Ponti qua plaga laeva iacet.

ordered to turn your untried ship toward the Colchians
     you entered the blessed realms of my fatherland.
there I was Medea, what here is a newly-wed bride;
     as rich as a father is to her, so rich was mine to me.
this one holds two-sea'd Ephyre, that one, up to snowy Scythia
     holds all, where the left region of the Pontus lies.

Accipit hospitio iuvenes Aeeta Pelasgos,
et premitis pictos corpora Graia toros.

Aeetes receives the Pelasgian youths into hospitality,
and you press with Greek bodies the painted couches.

tunc ego te vidi, tunc coepi scire, quid esses;
illa fuit mentis prima ruina meae.
et vidi et perii! nec notis ignibus arsi,
ardet ut ad magnos pinea taeda deos.

then I saw you, then I began to know what you were;
that was the first ruin of my mind.
and I saw and I perished! nor did I burn with known fires,
as a pine torch burns for the great gods.

et formosus eras et me mea fata trahebant:
abstulerant oculi lumina nostra tui.
perfide, sensisti! quis enim bene celat amorem?

and you were beautiful, and my fates were drawing me:
your eyes had stolen my light.
perfidious one, you sensed it! for who indeed well conceals love?

     eminet indicio prodita flamma suo.
Dicitur interea tibi lex, ut dura ferorum
     insolito premeres vomere colla boum.
Martis erant tauri plus quam per cornua saevi,
     quorum terribilis spiritus ignis erat,
aere pedes solidi praetentaque naribus aera,
     nigra per adflatus haec quoque facta suos.

     the flame, betrayed, stands out by its own indication.
Meanwhile a law is declared to you, that you should press the hard necks of wild oxen with an unaccustomed plowshare.
They were bulls of Mars, savage more than merely by their horns,
     whose terrible breath was fire,
their feet solid with bronze and bronze plates set before their nostrils,
     these too made black by their own blasts.

semina praeterea populos genitura iuberis
     spargere devota lata per arva manu,
qui peterent natis secum tua corpora telis:
     illa est agricolae messis iniqua suo.
lumina custodis succumbere nescia somno
     ultimus est aliqua decipere arte labor.
Dixerat Aeetes: maesti consurgitis omnes,
     mensaque purpureos deserit alta toros.

Besides, you are ordered to scatter the accursed seeds, destined to beget peoples,
     with a broad hand over the fields,
who would assail your body with weapons born with themselves:
     that is the iniquitous harvest for its own farmer.
the eyes of the custodian, unknowing how to succumb to sleep,
     the final labor is to trick by some art.
Aeetes had spoken: sad, you all rise,
     and the high table deserts the purple couches.

quam tibi tunc longe regnum dotale Creusae
     et socer et magni nata Creontis erat?
tristis abis. oculis abeuntem prosequor udis
     et dixit tenui murmure lingua: "vale!"
ut positum tetigi thalamo male saucia lectum,
     acta est per lacrimas nox mihi quanta fuit.

how far away to you then was the dowry-kingdom of Creusa,
     and a father-in-law, and the daughter of great Creon?
sad you go. with wet eyes I follow you as you depart,
     and my tongue said with a faint murmur: "farewell!"
when, badly wounded, I touched the bed set in the bridal chamber,
     the night was spent for me through tears—what a night it was.

ante oculos taurique meos segetesque nefandae,
     ante meos oculos pervigil anguis erat.
hinc amor, hinc timor est—ipsum timor auget amorem.
     mane erat et thalamo cara recepta soror
disiectamque comas aversaque in ora iacentem
     invenit et lacrimis omnia plena meis.

before my eyes both the bulls and the nefarious crops,
     before my very eyes was the ever-vigilant serpent.
from this is love, from this is fear—fear itself augments love.
     it was morning, and my dear sister, admitted to my bedchamber,
and she found me lying with my hair disheveled and my face turned away,
     and everything filled with my tears.

orat opem Minyis, alter petit, impetrat alter,
     Aesonio iuveni quod rogat illa, damus.
Est nemus et piceis et frondibus ilicis atrum,
     vix illuc radiis solis adire licet;
sunt in eo—fuerant certe—delubra Dianae:
     aurea barbarica stat dea facta manu.
noscis an exciderunt mecum loca?

she prays for aid for the Minyans; one seeks, another obtains;
     for the Aesonian youth what she asks, we grant.
There is a grove dark with pines and with the foliage of holm oak,
     hardly is it permitted for the sun’s rays to come in thither;
there are in it—there certainly had been—shrines of Diana:
     the goddess stands golden, made by a barbaric hand.
Do you know the places, or have they slipped from memory along with me?

venimus illuc;
     orsus es infido sic prior ore loqui:
"ius tibi et arbitrium nostrae fortuna salutis
     tradidit inque tua est vitaque morsque manu.
perdere posse sat est, siquem iuvet ipsa potestas;
     sed tibi servatus gloria maior ero.
per mala nostra precor, quorum potes esse levamen,
     per genus et numen cuncta videntis avi,
per triplices vultus arcanaque sacra Dianae
     et si forte aliquos gens habet ista deos:
o virgo, miserere mei, miserere meorum,
     effice me meritis tempus in omne tuum!

we came thither;
     you began first thus to speak with an unfaithful mouth:
"the right and the arbitration of our safety
     has been handed over to you, and in your hand are both life and death.
to be able to destroy is enough, if the very power pleases someone;
     but, preserved by you, I shall be a greater glory.
by our evils I pray, of which you can be the alleviation,
     by the lineage and the numen of your all-seeing grandsire,
by the triple faces and the arcane sacred rites of Diana,
     and, if perchance that nation has any gods:
o maiden, pity me, pity mine,
     make me, by your merits, yours for all time!"

quodsi forte virum non dedignare Pelasgum—
     sed mihi tam faciles unde meosque deos?—
spiritus ante meus tenues vanescet in auras,
     quam thalamo, nisi tu, nupta sit ulla meo.
conscia sit Iuno sacris praefecta maritis
     et dea marmorea cuius in aede sumus!"
Haec animum—et quota pars haec sunt?—movere puellae
     simplicis et dextrae dextera iuncta meae.
vidi etiam lacrimas—an pars est fraudis in illis?

and if by chance you do not disdain a Pelasgian man—
     —but whence to me gods so favorable, and my own?—
my breath will sooner vanish into tenuous airs,
     than any woman shall be wed in my bridal chamber, unless it is you.
let Juno be privy-witness, set over the marital rites,
     and the marble goddess in whose temple we are!"
These things—and what portion are these?—moved the spirit of the simple girl,
     and his right hand joined to my right hand.
I even saw tears—or is there a share of fraud in them?

     sic cito sum verbis capta puella tuis.
iungis et aeripedes inadusto corpore tauros
     et solidam iusso vomere findis humum.
arva venenatis pro semine dentibus imples,
     nascitur et gladios scutaque miles habet.

     so quickly I, a girl, have been captured by your words.
you yoke the bronze-footed bulls, your body unscorched,
     and with the bidden ploughshare you split the solid earth.
you fill the fields with venomous teeth in place of seed,
     and a warrior is born and has swords and shields.

ipsa ego, quae dederam medicamina, pallida sedi,
     cum vidi subitos arma tenere viros,
donec terrigenae—facinus mirabile!—fratres
     inter se strictas conseruere manus.
Insopor ecce vigil squamis crepitantibus horrens
     sibilat et torto pectore verrit humum.
dotis opes ubi erant?

I myself, who had given the medicaments, sat pallid,
     when I saw sudden men seize arms,
until the earth-born—an astonishing deed!—brothers
     among themselves joined hands in combat.
Behold, the unslumbering watchman, bristling with rattling scales,
     hisses and with twisted breast sweeps the ground.
where were the riches of the dowry?

ubi erat tibi regia coniunx
     quique maris gemini distinet Isthmos aquas?
illa ego, quae tibi sum nunc denique barbara facta,
     nunc tibi sum pauper, nunc tibi visa nocens,
flammea subduxi medicato lumina somno
     et tibi quae raperes vellera tuta dedi.
proditus est genitor, regnum patriamque reliqui,
     munus in exilio quod licet esse tuli,
virginitas facta est peregrini praeda latronis,
     optima cum cara matre relicta soror.

where was your royal consort?
     and the Isthmus that separates the waters of the twin seas?
I am that woman who now at last has been made a barbarian to you,
     now to you I am poor, now to you I seem guilty,
I drew down the flaming eyes with medicated sleep
     and I gave to you the safe fleece to snatch.
my father was betrayed, I left my kingdom and fatherland,
     I bore, in exile, the boon that is permitted,
my virginity became the prey of a foreign brigand,
     my best sister left behind together with my dear mother.

At non te fugiens sine me, germane, reliqui.
deficit hoc uno littera nostra loco:
quod facere ausa mea est, non audet scribere dextra.
sic ego, sed tecum, dilaceranda fui!

But, as I fled, I did not leave you behind, brother.
our letter fails in this one place:
what my right hand dared to do, it does not dare to write.
thus I—yet with you—ought to have been torn apart!

nec tamen extimui—quid enim post illa timerem?—
credere me pelago femina iamque nocens.
numen ubi est? ubi di? meritas subeamus in alto,
tu fraudis poenas, credulitatis ego.

nor yet did I dread—what indeed after those things would I fear?—
to entrust myself to the sea, a woman and now guilty.
where is the numen? where the gods? let us undergo our deserved [penalties] on the deep,
you the penalties of fraud, I of credulity.

Compressos utinam Symplegades elisissent
nostraque adhaererent ossibus ossa tuis!
aut nos Scylla rapax canibus misisset edendos!
debuit ingratis Scylla nocere viris.

Would that the Symplegades, as they closed, had crushed us,
and that our bones had adhered to your bones!
Or that rapacious Scylla had sent us to her dogs to be eaten!
Scylla ought to have harmed ungrateful men.

quaeque vomit totidem fluctus totidemque resorbet,
     nos quoque Trinacriae subposuisset aquae!
sospes ad Haemonias victorque reverteris urbes;
     ponitur ad patrios aurea lana deos.
Quid referam Peliae natas pietate nocentes
     caesaque virginea membra paterna manu?

and she who vomits just as many waves and just as many swallows back,
     would that she had placed us too beneath the Trinacrian water!
safe you return to the Haemonian cities and as victor;
     the golden fleece is set before the ancestral gods.
Why should I recount the daughters of Pelias, harmful through piety,
     and the father’s limbs cut to pieces by a virginal hand?

ut culpent alii, tibi me laudare necesse est,
     pro quo sum totiens esse coacta nocens.
ausus es—o iusto desunt sua verba dolori!—
     ausus es "Aesonia" dicere "cede domo!"
iussa domo cessi natis comitata duobus
     et, qui me sequitur semper, amore tui.
ut subito nostras Hymen cantatus ad aures
     venit et accenso lampades igne micant
tibiaque effundit socialia carmina vobis,
     at mihi funerea flebiliora tuba,
pertimui, nec adhuc tantum scelus esse putabam,
     sed tamen in toto pectore frigus erat.

let others blame, it is necessary for me to praise myself to you,
     for which I have so often been compelled to be guilty.
you dared—oh, a just grief lacks its proper words!—
     you dared to say, "Aesonian woman, yield the house!"
ordered, I left the house, accompanied by my two sons
     and by that which always follows me, the love of you.
when suddenly Hymen’s chant came to our ears
     and the torches glitter with fire kindled,
and the pipe pours out social songs for you,
     but to me more tearful than a funereal trumpet,
I grew afraid, nor yet did I think there was so great a crime,
     but nevertheless in my whole breast there was a chill.

turba ruunt et "Hymen" clamant "Hymenaee!" frequenter;
     quo propior vox haec, hoc mihi peius erat.
diversi flebant servi lacrimasque tegebant—
     quis vellet tanti nuntius esse mali?
me quoque quidquid erat potius nescire iuvabat,
     sed tamquam scirem, mens mea tristis erat,
cum minor e pueris iussus studione videndi
     constitit ad geminae limina prima foris:
"hinc" mihi "mater adi!

the crowd rush, and frequently they shout "Hymen, Hymenaeus!";
     the nearer this voice, the worse it was for me.
various slaves were weeping and were covering their tears—
     who would wish to be the messenger of so great an evil?
it also pleased me rather not to know, whatever it was,
     but as if I knew, my mind was sad,
when the younger of the boys, ordered in the zeal of seeing,
     stood at the first threshold of the double door:
'"From here," to me, "Mother, come!"'

pompam pater" inquit "Iason
     ducit et adiunctos aureus urget equos!"
protinus abscissa planxi mea pectora veste
     tuta nec a digitis ora fuere meis.
ire animus mediae suadebat in agmina turbae
     sertaque conpositis demere rapta comis.
vix me continui, quin sic laniata capillos
     clamarem "meus est!" iniceremque manus.

"‘The procession,’” he says, “‘father Jason
     leads, and the golden [chariot] urges on the yoked horses!’”
forthwith, with my garment torn, I beat my breast,
     nor were my features safe from my own fingers.
my spirit urged me to go into the ranks of the midst of the throng
     and to tear away the garlands from their arranged tresses.
scarcely did I restrain myself, from crying thus, my hair rent,
     “he is mine!” and from laying hands upon them.

Laese pater, gaude! Colchi gaudete relicti!
inferias umbrae fratris habete mei!

O wronged father, rejoice! Colchians left behind, rejoice!
hold funeral offerings for my brother’s shade!

deseror amissis regno patriaque domoque
     coniuge, qui nobis omnia solus erat.
serpentes igitur potui taurosque furentes,
     unum non potui perdomuisse virum.
quaeque feros pepuli doctis medicatibus ignes,
     non valeo flammas effugere ipsa meas.

I am deserted, my kingdom and fatherland and home lost,
     by my husband, who alone was everything to me.
Therefore I was able to master serpents and raging bulls,
     but I could not thoroughly subdue one man.
And I, who drove back wild fires with learned medicaments,
     am not able to escape my own flames myself.

ipsi me cantus herbaeque artesque relinquunt
nil dea, nil Hecates sacra potentis agunt.
non mihi grata dies, noctes vigilantur amarae
et tener a misero pectore somnus abit.
quae me non possum, potui sopire draconem.

my chants and herbs and arts themselves abandon me
nothing the goddess, nothing the sacred rites of potent Hecate avail.
day is not welcome to me, bitter nights are kept in vigil
and tender sleep departs from my wretched breast.
I, who cannot lull myself, was able to lull the dragon.

     utilior cuivis quam mihi cura mea est.
quos ego servavi, paelex amplectitur artus
     et nostri fructus illa laboris habet.
Forsitan et, stultae dum te iactare maritae
     quaeris et iniustis auribus apta loqui,
in faciem moresque meos nova crimina fingas.

     my care is more useful to anyone than to me.
those limbs which I saved, a paramour embraces
     and she has the fruits of my labor.
Perhaps too, while you vaunt yourself to your foolish wife
     and seek to speak things apt to unjust ears,
you may even feign new crimes against my face and my character.

     rideat et vitiis laeta sit illa meis.
rideat et Tyrio iaceat sublimis in ostro—
     flebit et ardores vincet adusta meos.
dum ferrum flammaeque aderunt sucusque veneni,
     hostis Medeae nullus inultus erit.

     let her laugh and let her be glad at my vices.
let her laugh and lie exalted on Tyrian purple—
     she will weep, and, scorched, will outmatch my ardors.
so long as iron and flames and the juice of poison are at hand,
     no enemy of Medea shall be unavenged.

Quod si forte preces praecordia ferrea tangunt,
     nunc animis audi verba minora meis.
tam tibi sum supplex, quam tu mihi saepe fuisti,
     nec moror ante tuos procubuisse pedes.
si tibi sum vilis, communis respice natos:
     saeviet in partus dira noverca meos.

But if by chance prayers touch your iron inmost heart,
     now hear words humbler from my spirit.
I am as much a suppliant to you as you often were to me,
     nor do I hesitate to have lain prostrate before your feet.
if I am vile to you, look to the children we share:
     a dire stepmother will rage against my offspring.

et nimium similes tibi sunt, et imagine tangor
     et quotiens video, lumina nostra madent.
per superos oro, per avitae lumina flammae,
     per meritum et natos, pignora nostra, duos,
redde torum, pro quo tot res insana reliqui!
     adde fidem dictis auxiliumque refer!

and they are too much like you, and I am touched by the image
     and as often as I see them, my eyes grow wet.
I beg by the gods above, by the lights of the ancestral flame,
     by my merit and by our sons, our pledges, the two,
restore the marriage-bed, for which I, mad, left so many things!
     add faith to your words and return the help!

non ego te imploro contra taurosque virosque,
     utque tua serpens victa quiescat ope;
te peto, quem merui, quem nobis ipse dedisti,
     cum quo sum pariter facta parente parens.
Dos ubi sit, quaeris? campo numeravimus illo,
     qui tibi laturo vellus arandus erat.

I do not implore you against bulls and men,
     nor that by your help the serpent, conquered, may grow quiet;
I seek you, whom I have merited, whom you yourself gave to us,
     with whom I have been made, along with the parent, a parent.
Where the dowry is, you ask? We counted it in that field,
     which had to be ploughed by you, you who were about to carry off the fleece.

aureus ille aries villo spectabilis alto,
dos mea: "quam" dicam si tibi "redde," neges.
dos mea tu sospes, dos est mea Graia iuventus.
i nunc, Sisyphias, inprobe, confer opes.

that golden ram, remarkable for his lofty fleece,
my dowry: if I should say to you "give it back," you would refuse.
you safe and sound are my dowry, my dowry is the Grecian youth.
go now, shameless man, muster Sisyphian wealth.

quod vivis, quod habes nuptam socerumque potentes,
hoc ipsum, ingratus quod potes esse, meum est.
quos equidem actutum—sed quid praedicere poenam
attinet? ingentis parturit ira minas.

that you live, that you have a powerful bride and father-in-law, this very fact—that you can be an ingrate—is my doing.
whom indeed forthwith—I—but what is the point to proclaim the punishment? anger is in labor with enormous menaces.

quo feret ira sequar. facti fortasse pigebit;
et piget infido consuluisse viro.
viderit ista deus, qui nunc mea pectora versat.

whither my ire will bear me, I will follow. perhaps I shall regret the deed;
and I regret having consulted a faithless man.
let god look to these things, who now turns my heart.

nescio quid certe mens mea maius agit.

I know not what; certainly my mind is driving at something greater.