Amours

Perseus Latin · Perseus Latin · 2,762 sections

1.6.51
What usage must her foes expect to meet?
1.6.52
Unlock the gate,-the morning will not stay;
1.6.53
Unlock the gate, and give my love its way.
1.6.54
Or is it sloth or is it sleep that brings,
1.6.55
This let to love, and pinions down his wings!
1.6.56
Why else do I in vain repeat my prayer,
1.6.57
Is it, thou dost not, or thou wilt not hear?
1.6.58
When first I waited at thy gate, and thought
1.6.59
To 'scape thy care, I was at midnight caught.
1.6.60
With over-dilligence thou then look'st out,
1.6.61
To spy what lover was upon the scout.
1.6.62
These are wild guesses, thou'rt perhaps employ'd
1.6.63
More sweetly, and enjoy'st what I enjoy'd.
1.6.64
And while I'm waiting with impatience here,
1.6.65
Thy envied fortune's with the faithless fair.
1.6.66
Oh, for thy pleasure, give me all thy pains,
1.6.67
Let us change chances, and be mine thy chains.
1.6.68
Unlock the gate, the morning will not stay,
1.6.69
Unlock the gate, and kindness past repay.
1.6.70
Hark: or I dream, or on the hinge I hear
1.6.71
The wicket turn, or bolts unloosen'd jar.
1.6.72
I dream, indeed, the bolts as they were laid,
1.6.73
Stand fix'd: the noise was by my fancy made.
1.6.74
But all, alas! is hush'd, I hear no sound,
1.6.75
All in the silence of the night is drown'd.
1.6.76
Here, hopeless of admittance, I attend,
1.6.77
While on my head the pearly dews descend.
1.6.78
Unlock the gate, the morning will not stay,
1.6.79
Unlock the gate, I will no longer pray,
1.6.80
But force by sword and fire my readier way.
1.6.81
What need of fire or sword? myself alone,
1.6.82
More pow'rful, than or sword or fire am grown.
1.6.83
Around your heads shall flaming torches fly,
1.6.84
And Jove the house shall burn, as well as I.
1.6.85
Night, love, and wine encourage and inflame:
1.6.86
These triumph over fear, and that o'er shame.
1.6.87
All ways I've tried, but all successless prove,
1.6.88
Nor threats can fright thee, nor entreaties move;
1.6.89
Deaf to my pray'rs as to my tears thou'rt blind,
1.6.90
Thy gate is less obdurate than thy mind.
1.6.91
But see, the ruddy morn begins to rise,
1.6.92
And paints with rosy streaks the eastern skies,
1.6.93
While crowing cocks the lab'rer's sloth revile,
1.6.94
And summon wretches to their daily toil.
1.6.95
Throw then, fond man, thy fragrant chaplet by,
1.6.96
And let it at thy lady's threshold lie.
1.6.97
When in the morn thy faded flow'rs she spies,
1.6.98
Kind thoughts of me may in her bosom rise,
1.6.99
Perhaps she may resent her porter's crime,
1.6.100
And grieve that here so ill I spent my time.
1.6.101
Against me though thou shut'st thy lady's gate,
1.6.102
I cannot one, that serves my mistress, hate.
1.6.103
You both who did against my hopes rebel,
1.6.104
Ah, porter; and ah, cruel gate, farewell.
1.7.1
Come, if ye're friends, and let these hands be bound,
1.7.2
Which could with impious rage a mistress wound:
1.7.3
What more did Ajax in his fury do,
1.7.4
When all the sacred grazing herd he slew?
1.7.5
Or he who spared not her who gave him breath?
1.7.6
So ill the son reveng'd his father's death!
1.7.7
Then I had broke the most religious ties,
1.7.8
Both to my parents and the deities:
1.7.9
I tore (0 heav'ns!) her finely braided hair,
1.7.10
How charming then look'd the disorder'd fair.
1.7.11
So Atalanta in her chaise is drawn,
1.7.12
Where the Arcadian beasts her empire own:
1.7.13
So Ariadne, left upon the shore,
1.7.14
Does all alone her lost estate deplore.
1.7.15
Who would not then have rail'd and talk'd aloud
1.7.16
(Which to the helpless sex might be allowed.)
1.7.17
She only did upbraid me with her eye,
1.7.18
Whose speaking tears did want of words supply.
1.7.19
0, that some merciful superior pow'r
1.7.20
Had struck me lame before that fatal hour,
1.7.21
And not have suffer'd me to pierce my heart
1.7.22
So deeply, in the best and tend'rest part;
1.7.23
To make a lady that subjection own,
1.7.24
Which is not to the meanest Roman known.
1.7.25
'Twas Diomede, who first a goddess struck,
1.7.26
I from his hand that curs'd example took;
1.7.27
But he was far less criminal than I,
1.7.28
I was a lover, he an enemy.
1.7.29
March like a conqueror in triumph now,
1.7.30
With laurel wreaths encompassing your brow,
1.7.31
And render to the mighty gods your vow:
1.7.32
So, as you pass, th' attending gazing crowd,
1.7.33
By their applause shall speak your courage loud:
1.7.34
Let your sad captive in the front appear,
1.7.35
With streaming cheeks, and with dishevell'd hair.
1.7.36
Such lips were form'd for kinder words than these,
1.7.37
Wounds made by lovers' furious ecstasies.
1.7.38
Though like a torrent I was hurried on,
1.7.39
A slave to passion which I could not shun,
1.7.40
I might have only pierc'd her tender ear
1.7.41
With threatening language, such as virgins fear.
1.7.42
Fear having chill'd the current of her blood,
1.7.43
She pale as Parian marble statue stood;
1.7.44
Tears, which suspense did for a while restrain,
1.7.45
Gush'd forth, and down her cheeks the deluge ran.
1.7.46
As when the sun does by a powerful beam

Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0959.phi001.perseus-eng2. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0. Source.