Pontano: GIOVANNI GIOVIANO PONTANO (1429-1503)

Ad cenam me, Stella, vocas et gaudia lecti:
      mensa mihi posita est compositusque torus,
ipsa ministrabis simul et simul ipsa recumbes
      et dabis in medio basia multa mero,
Cena placet. Venio. Ponam sed foedera lecti:
      me tua cena iuvat, tu mea pacta proba.

To dinner you call me, Stella, and the joys of the bed:
      the table is set for me, and the couch arranged,
you yourself will serve at once, and at once you yourself will recline
      and you will give, in the midst, many kisses with neat wine,
The dinner pleases. I come. But I will lay down the covenants of the bed:
      your dinner delights me; you, approve my pacts.

Prima cuba, nec nuda tamen: tenuissima sed te
      tela tegat, Cyprio tela liquore madens.
Ipse sequar. Tu me amplexu placidissima blando
      excipe et in tepido (qua potes) abde sinu;
oscula mox iunges cupidas imitata columbas,
      oscula non uno continuata modo.

First lie down, yet not nude, however: but let the thinnest web cover you,
      a web soaked with Cyprian liquor.
I myself will follow. You, most placid one, receive me
      with a coaxing embrace, and hide me (as you can) in your tepid bosom;
soon you will join kisses, imitating desirous doves,
      kisses continued not in one way alone.

Muta venus mihi nulla placet: suspiria misce
      aptaque lascivis garrula verba iocis;
nec manus officio desit, manus aemula linguae est:
      haec tactu venerem suscitat, illa sono.
Gaudia Amor probat haec; verum, si rixa sequatur,
      quam dens, quamve aliquid moverit ausa manus,
auctor ero rixae. Tu mox offensa quereris,
      unguibus et scindes pectora nostra tuis;
scindam ego tunc tunicam, subducta et veste papillas
      nuda eris et nullo tegmine bella geres.

No mute Venus pleases me: mix in sighs
      and garrulous words apt to lascivious jests;
nor let the hand be lacking in its office—the hand is a rival of the tongue:
      this awakens Venus by touch, that by sound.
Love approves these joys; but, if a quarrel should follow,
      whatever the tooth, or whatever the daring hand has wrought,
I will be the author of the quarrel. You, offended, soon complain,
      and with your own nails you will tear my breast;
then I will tear the tunic, and with the garment drawn back from your breasts
      you will be naked and wage wars with no covering.

Ipsa manum collo inicies, super ipsa recumbes,
      verbera et ipsa dabis, verbera et ipsa feres;
Dente petes, ego dente petam; demorsa dolebis,
      ipse querar, lacrimae prona per ora cadent.
Tum supplex veniam grata cum pace rogabo;
      ipsa dabis, simul et basia multa dabis;
basia multa dabo, iungam quoque munera pacis,
      munera complexo ter repetita sinu.
Hoc est pacis opus, sunt haec sua foedera lecti:
      subscribas; per me nulla futura mora est.

You yourself will cast your hand upon my neck, you yourself will recline on top,
      and you yourself will give blows, and you yourself will bear blows;
you will seek with tooth, I will seek with tooth; bitten you will ache,
      I myself will lament, tears will fall down my face.
Then as a suppliant I will ask pardon with welcome peace;
      you yourself will grant it, and at the same time you will give many kisses;
I will give many kisses, I will also join the gifts of peace,
      gifts thrice repeated in an embracing bosom.
This is the work of peace, these are the bed’s own treaties:
      subscribe; on my part no delay will be forthcoming.

Hendecasyllabi seu Baiae 1.4Ad Hermionen ut papillas contegat

Hendecasyllables or Baiae 1.4To Hermione, that she cover her nipples

Praedico, tege candidas papillas
nec quaeras rabiem ciere amantum.
Me, quem frigida congelat senecta,
irritas male calfacisque: quare,
praedico, tege candidas papillas
et pectus strophio tegente vela.
Nam quid lacteolos sinus et ipsas
prae te fers sine linteo papillas?

I forewarn, cover your fair-white nipples,
nor seek to arouse the rabid rage of lovers.
Me, whom frigid old age congeals,
you irritate and warm badly: therefore,
I forewarn, cover your fair-white nipples
and veil your breast with a strophium breast-band covering it.
For why do you display milk-white bosoms and the nipples themselves
before you without linen?

An vis dicere: `Basia papillas
et pectus nitidum suaviare?
Vis num dicere: `Tange, tange, tracta?
Tene incedere nudulis papillis?

Or do you wish to say: `Kiss the nipples
and to kiss sweetly the nitid breast?
Do you perhaps wish to say: `Touch, touch, handle?
Do you intend to walk along with your little-bare nipples?

Nudo pectore tene deambulare?
Hoc est dicere: `Posce, posce, trado,
hoc est ad venerem vocare amantes.
Quare, aut contege candidas papillas
et pectus strophio decente vesti,
aut, senex licet, involabo in illas,
ut possim iuvenis tibi videri.

Do you intend to stroll with a bare breast?
This is to say: `Demand, demand, I hand over,'
this is to call lovers to Venus.
Therefore, either cover your bright-white nipples
and vest your breast with a decent strophium,
or, though I am an old man, I will swoop upon them,
so that I may be able to seem a youth to you.

Tithonum, Hermione, tuae papillae
possunt ad iuvenis vocare munus.

Tithonus, Hermione, your nipples
can summon him to the office of a youth.

Hendecasyllabi1.20Loquitur puella fuscula

Hendecasyllables1.20A dusky girl speaks

Quod sim fuscula, quod nigella, et ipsae
fusco in pectore nigricent papillae,
quid tum? Nox nigra, fusculae tenebrae,
nocturnis colitur Venus tenebris,
optat nox Venerem, Venus tenebras,
et noctes Venerem tenebricosae
delectant, pueri in sinu locata
lusus dum facit improbasque rixas.
Ergo his in tenebris latebricosis,
his nos in latebris tenebricosis,
lecto compositi, quiete in una
ductemus Venerem, toroque vincti
condamus tenebras, sopore ab ipso
dum solis Venus excitet sub ortum.

That I am dusky, that I am swarthy, and the nipples themselves
on a dusky breast grow blackish,
what then? Night is black, the shadows dusky;
Venus is cultivated in nocturnal darkness;
night longs for Venus, and Venus for the shadows,
and tenebrous nights delight in Venus,
placed in a boy’s bosom while she makes play and wanton tussles.
Therefore in these tenebrous lairs,
we, in these tenebrous hideaways,
composed on the bed, in a single quiet,
let us conduct Venus, and, bound to the couch,
let us shut in the darkness, by sleep itself,
until Venus rouses at the sun’s rising.

Hendecasyllabi1.22Turtures alloquitur sciscitans eas de amoris natura

Hendecasyllables1.22He addresses the turtledoves, questioning them about the nature of love

Quae ramo geminae sedetis una
atque una canitis, vagae volucres,
una et gutture luditis canoro,
cum vobis amor unus, una cura,
unum sit studium et fidele amoris
(nostri nam variant subinde amores),
vos, blandae volucres, amoris instar,
exemplum fidei iugalis unum,
quae vis, obsecro, dicite, est amoris
tam constans male dissidensque secum?
Nam, si pascitur e calore et igni,
cur, o cur miseri subinde amantes
frigescunt simul et tremunt geluque
toto pectore sanguis obrigescit?
Sin est frigida vis geluque ab ipso
horrescit simul omnibus medullis,
cur, o cur miseri subinde amantes
uruntur tacito calore et igni,
toto et pectore sanguis ustilatur?

You who, twin, sit together as one on a branch
and as one you sing, wandering winged creatures,
and as one you play with a canorous throat,
since for you there is one love, one care,
one zeal and faithful love
(for our loves keep varying again and again),
you, charming winged creatures, the likeness of love,
a single example of conjugal fidelity,
what force, I beg, tell me, has love
so constant yet ill at odds with itself?
For if it feeds on heat and fire,
why, O why do wretched lovers again and again
grow cold at once and tremble, and with frost
the blood in the whole breast grows rigid?
But if it is a frigid force and from the frost itself
it shudders at once in all the marrows,
why, O why do wretched lovers again and again
burn with a silent heat and fire,
and the blood throughout the whole breast is scorched?

Quaen haec tam varians subinde vis, ut
alternis calor imperet geluque?
Vos o dicite, blandulae volucres,
exemplum fidei atque amoris unum.

What is this force so varying repeatedly, that
alternately heat and frost command?
You, O speak, charming little birds,
the single example of fidelity and of love.

Hendecasyllabi1.28Ad Stellam puellam

Hendecasyllables1.28To Stella the girl

Dum furtim mihi das negasque ocellos
opponisque manum simulque rides,
post hinc et variat color per ora
et suspiria lassa sentiuntur,
stillatim mihi corda deliquescunt,
sudor tempora frigidus pererrat
et passim tremor ossibus vagatur,
ut sensus animum repente linquant,
ut fiam miser et beatus una.
Sed iam plus solito nitescit aër,
iam lux candidior diem serenat:
cur ah, cur tenebrae repente nobis,
cur nox exoritur, nigrescit aura?
An sentis, miser, an miselle, sentis?

While you secretly give and deny to me your little eyes,
and you put up your hand and at the same time you smile,
after this, too, the color varies over your features,
and weary suspirations are felt;
drop by drop my heart deliquesces,
a frigid sweat roves over my temples,
and here and there a tremor wanders through my bones,
so that my senses suddenly relinquish my spirit,
so that I become wretched and blessed at once.
But now the air glistens more than is customary,
now a more candid light makes the day serene:
why, ah, why do shadows suddenly [come] upon us,
why does night arise, does the breeze grow black?
Do you sense it, wretch, do you, poor little one, do you sense it?

Stella est ad speculam, refulsit in te:
solem lumina victa pertimescunt.
O claras medio die tenebras,
o lucem sine nube nigricantem!

Stella is at the watchtower, she has flashed upon you:
the vanquished lights dread the sun.
O bright darknesses at midday,
o cloudless light blackening!

Hendecasyllabi 2.12Ad Focillam

Hendecasyllables 2.12To Focilla

Ni reddis mihi vitreos ocellos,
caecae praesidium meae senectae,
an est, cur ego non tuis papillis
manus iniciam trahamque prensas
usque ad basiolum, supina quod des,
quod des ipsa supina, quod supina
cervice excipias, quod ore hiulco,
quodque ipse eripiam tibi supinus?
Atque illud moneo, supina vites,
ne lapsis pedibus ruas repente
aut in scriniolo renisa restes.
Nam nec sat fuerit vocare matrem,
furtum aut reddere supplicemve flere;
sed nudo (mihi crede) crure, coxa,
nudo pectine et usque ad umbilicum
senem perpetiere verpulentum;
et clames volo: `Reddo, reddo, reddo;
pro quo sic ego: `Subdo, subdo, subdo.

If you do not give back to me the glassy little beads,
the safeguard of my blind old age,
or is there a reason why I should not upon your nipples
lay hands and drag you, grasped,
all the way to the little-kiss, which you give supine,
which you yourself give supine, which supine
you receive with your neck, with a gaping mouth,
and which I myself snatch from you, supine?
And I warn you this: being supine, avoid it,
lest with slipping feet you suddenly fall
or, braced, stick fast against a little desk.
For it will not be enough to call your mother,
or to return the theft or to weep as a suppliant;
but with bare (believe me) leg, hip,
bare pubis and up to the navel
you will endure a prepuce-swollen old man;
and I want you to shout: `I give back, I give back, I give back;'
for which, thus I: `I thrust in, I thrust in, I thrust in.'

Hendecasyllabi2.36 `Ad Terinnam

Hendecasyllables2.36 `To Terinna

Tecum, si liceat, velim, Terinna,
(me tussis licet et premat gravedo)
tecum has frigidulas fovere noctes.
O noctes mihi ter quater beatas,
o somnos sine fine prurientes,
me cum sub tepido, Terinna, lecto,
me cum sub teneris fovebis ulnis,
me cum roscidulis procax labellis
et suges simul osculaberisque.
O noctes mihi ter quater beatas.

With you, if it were permitted, I would wish, Terinna,
(though a cough and catarrh press me)
with you to warm these rather chilly nights.
O nights thrice and four times blessed for me,
O slumbers prurient without end,
me, when beneath the warm coverlet, Terinna,
me, when you will cherish me under tender arms,
me, when with saucy dewy little lips
you will both suck and kiss at the same time.
O nights thrice and four times blessed for me.

Ne tu, ne digitis, Terinna, saevi,
ne saevi aridulo, Terinna, dente.
Ah quid pallia lectulo excidere?
Ah quid lectulus ipse subtremescit?

Do not, do not be savage with your fingers, Terinna,
do not be savage with your little dry tooth, Terinna.
Ah why do the coverlets slip from the little bed?
Ah why does the little bed itself shiver a little?

Ne saevi, rogo, ne, Terinna, saevi.
Sic, sic, o mea, saevias licebit,
hac mecum ratione litigato:
nunc vinci patiare, nunc repugna,
et nunc oscula porge, nunc negato.
Nunc risum lacrimis iocisque fletum
misce et dulcia verba tinge amaris.

Do not rage, I beg, do not, Terinna, rage.
Thus, thus, my own, you may be savage,
litigate with me on this rationale:
now allow yourself to be conquered, now resist,
and now proffer kisses, now refuse them.
Now mix laughter with tears and weeping with jests,
and tinge sweet words with bitters.

Haec cum feceris, o Terinna, mox te
ad lusus placidos resolve mecum,
complexa et teneris senem lacertis
ludas delicias venustiores,
dicas blanditias procaciores,
fingas nequitiam proterviorem,
et ludos, age, fac licentiores
et noctem quoque duc amantiorem,
dum lassis sopor instet ex ocellis.

When you have done these things, O Terinna, soon unloose yourself to placid plays with me,
and, having embraced the old man with tender arms,
play delights more charming,
speak blandishments more procacious,
feign a naughtiness more impudent,
and the games—come—make more licentious,
and lead the night too to be more loving,
until slumber presses from the weary little eyes.