Carmina

Captive Asia he add unto Egyptian bounds.

Now for such causes I, enrolled in host of the Heavens,

By a new present, discharge promise thou madest of old:

Maugrè my will, O Queen, my place on thy head I relinquished,

Maugrè my will, I attest, swearing by thee and thy head;

Penalty due shall befall whoso makes oath to no purpose.

Yet who assumes the vaunt forceful as iron to be?

E’en was that mount o’erthrown, though greatest in universe, where through

Thía’s illustrious race speeded its voyage to end,

Whenas the Medes brought forth new sea, and barbarous youth-hood

Urged an Armada to swim traversing middle-Athos.

What can be done by Hair when such things yield them to Iron?

Jupiter! Grant Chalybon perish the whole of the race,

Eke who in primal times ore seeking under the surface

Showed th’ example, and spalled iron however so hard.

Shortly before I was shorn my sister tresses bewailèd

Lot of me, e’en as the sole brother to Memnon the Black,

Winnowing upper air wi’ feathers flashing and quiv’ring,

Chloris’ wing-borne steed, came before Arsinoë,

Whence upraising myself he flies through aëry shadows,

And in chaste Venus’ breast drops he the present he bears.

Eke Zephyritis had sent, for the purpose trusted, her bondsman,

Settler of Grecian strain on the Canopian strand.

So willed various Gods, lest sole ’mid lights of the Heavens

Should Ariadne’s crown taken from temples of her

Glitter in gold, but we not less shine fulgent in splendour,

We the consecrate spoils shed by a blond-hued head,

Even as weeping-wet sought I the fanes of Celestials

Placed me the Goddess a new light amid star-lights of old:

For with Virgo in touch and joining the furious Lion’s

Radiance with Callisto, maid of Lyc´on beloved,

Wind I still to the west, conducting tardy Boötes,

Who unwilling and slow must into Ocean merge.

Yet though press me o’night the pacing footprints of Godheads,

Tethys, hoary of hair, ever regains me by day.

(Lend me thy leave to speak such words, Rhamnusian Virgin,

Verities like unto these never in fear will I veil;

Albeit every star asperse me with enemy’s censure,

Secrets in soothfast heart hoarded perforce I reveal.)

Nowise gladdens me so this state as absence torments me,

Absence doomëd for aye ta’en fro’ my mistress’s head,

Where I was wont (though she such cares unknew in her girlhood)

Many a thousand scents, Syrian unguents, to sip.

Now do you pair conjoined by the longed-for light of the torches,

Earlier yield not selves unto unanimous wills

Nor wi’ the dresses doft your barèd nipples encounter,

Ere shall yon onyx-vase pour me libations glad,

Onyx yours, ye that seek only rights of virtuous bed-rite.

But who yieldeth herself unto advowtry impure,

Ah! may her loathed gifts in light dust uselessly soak,

For of unworthy sprite never a gift I desire.

Rather, O new-mated brides, be concord aye your companion,

Ever let constant love dwell in the dwellings of you.

Yet when thou sightest, O Queen, the Constellations, I pray thee,

Every festal day Venus the Goddess appease;

Nor of thy unguent-gifts allow myself to be lacking,

Nay, do thou rather add largeliest increase to boons.

Would but the stars down fall! Could I of my Queen be the hair-lock,

Neighbour to Hydrochois e’en let Oarion shine.

O to the gentle spouse right dear, right dear to his parent,

Hail, and with increase fair Jupiter lend thee his aid,

Door, ’tis said wast fain kind service render to Balbus

Erst while, long as the house by her old owner was held;

Yet wast rumoured again to serve a purpose malignant,

After the elder was stretched, thou being oped for a bride.

Come, then, tell us the why in thee such change be reported

That to thy lord hast abjured faithfulness owed of old?

Never (so chance I to please Caeci1ius owning me now-a-days!)

Is it my own default, how so they say it be mine;

Nor can any declare aught sin by me was committed.

Yet it is so declared (Quintus!) by fable of folk;

Who, whenever they find things done no better than should be,

Come to me outcrying all:—Door, the default is thine own!

This be never enough for thee one-worded to utter,

But in such way to deal, each and all sense it and see.

What shall I do? None asks, while nobody troubles to know.

Willing are we? unto us stay not thy saying to say.

First let me note that the maid to us committed (assert they)

Was but a fraud: her mate never a touch of her had,

But that a father durst dishonour the bed of his first-born,

Folk all swear, and the house hapless with incest bewray;

Or that his impious mind was blunt with fiery passion

Or that his impotent son sprang from incapable seed.

And to be sought was one with nerve more nervous endowèd,

Who could better avail zone of the virgin to loose.

’Sooth, of egregious sire for piety wondrous, thou tellest,

Who in the heart of his son lief was !

Yet professed herself not only this to be knowing,

Brixia-town that lies under the Cycnean cliff,

Traversed by Mella-stream’s soft-flowing yellow-hued current,

Brixia, Vérona’s mother, I love for my home.

Eke of Posthumius’ loves and Cornelius too there be tattle,

With whom dared the dame evil advowtry commit.

Here might somebody ask:—How, Door, hast mastered such matter?

Thou that canst never avail threshold of owner to quit,

Neither canst listen to folk since here fast fixt to the side-posts

Only one office thou hast, shutting or opening the house.

Oft have I heard our dame in furtive murmurs o’er telling,

When with her handmaids alone, these her flagitious deeds,

Citing fore-cited names for that she never could fancy