Ars amatoria
Liber primus

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• Siquis in hoc artem populo non novit amandi,
• Hoc legat et lecto carmine doctus amet.
• Arte citae veloque rates remoque moventur,
• Arte leves currus: arte regendus amor.
• Curribus Automedon lentisque erat aptus habenis,
• Tiphys in Haemonia puppe magister erat:
• Me Venus artificem tenero praefecit Amori;
• Tiphys et Automedon dicar Amoris ego.
• Ille quidem ferus est et qui mihi saepe repugnet:
• Sed puer est, aetas mollis et apta regi.
• Phillyrides puerum cithara perfecit Achillem,
• Atque animos placida contudit arte feros.
• Qui totiens socios, totiens exterruit hostes,
• Creditur annosum pertimuisse senem.
• Quas Hector sensurus erat, poscente magistro
• Verberibus iussas praebuit ille manus.
• Aeacidae Chiron, ego sum praeceptor Amoris:
• Saevus uterque puer, natus uterque dea.
• Sed tamen et tauri cervix oneratur aratro,
• Frenaque magnanimi dente teruntur equi;
• Et mihi cedet Amor, quamvis mea vulneret arcu
• Pectora, iactatas excutiatque faces.
• Quo me fixit Amor, quo me violentius ussit,
• Hoc melior facti vulneris ultor ero:
• Non ego, Phoebe, datas a te mihi mentiar artes,
• Nec nos aeriae voce monemur avis,
• Nec mihi sunt visae Clio Cliusque sorores
• Servanti pecudes vallibus, Ascra, tuis:
• Usus opus movet hoc: vati parete perito;
• Vera canam: coeptis, mater Amoris, ades!
• Este procul, vittae tenues, insigne pudoris,
• Quaeque tegis medios, instita longa, pedes.
• Nos venerem tutam concessaque furta canemus,
• Inque meo nullum carmine crimen erit.
• Principio, quod amare velis, reperire labora,
• Qui nova nunc primum miles in arma venis.
• Proximus huic labor est placitam exorare puellam:
• Tertius, ut longo tempore duret amor.
• Hic modus, haec nostro signabitur area curru:
• Haec erit admissa meta terenda rota.
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• Dum licet, et loris passim potes ire solutis,
• Elige cui dicas «tu mihi sola places.»
• Haec tibi non tenues veniet delapsa per auras:
• Quaerenda est oculis apta puella tuis.
• Scit bene venator, cervis ubi retia tendat,
• Scit bene, qua frendens valle moretur aper;
• Aucupibus noti frutices; qui sustinet hamos,
• Novit quae multo pisce natentur aquae:
• Tu quoque, materiam longo qui quaeris amori,
• Ante frequens quo sit disce puella loco.
• Non ego quaerentem vento dare vela iubebo,
• Nec tibi, ut invenias, longa terenda via est.
• Andromedan Perseus nigris portarit ab Indis,
• Raptaque sit Phrygio Graia puella viro,
• Tot tibi tamque dabit formosas Roma puellas,
• «Haec habet» ut dicas «quicquid in orbe fuit.»
• Gargara quot segetes, quot habet Methymna racemos,
• Aequore quot pisces, fronde teguntur aves,
• Quot caelum stellas, tot habet tua Roma puellas:
• Mater in Aeneae constitit urbe sui.
• Seu caperis primis et adhuc crescentibus annis,
• Ante oculos veniet vera puella tuos:
• Sive cupis iuvenem, iuvenes tibi mille placebunt.
• Cogeris voti nescius esse tui:
• Seu te forte iuvat sera et sapientior aetas,
• Hoc quoque, crede mihi, plenius agmen erit.
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• Tu modo Pompeia lentus spatiare sub umbra,
• Cum sol Herculei terga leonis adit:
• Aut ubi muneribus nati sua munera mater
• Addidit, externo marmore dives opus.
• Nec tibi vitetur quae, priscis sparsa tabellis,
• Porticus auctoris Livia nomen habet:
• Quaque parare necem miseris patruelibus ausae
• Belides et stricto stat ferus ense pater.
• Nec te praetereat Veneri ploratus Adonis,
• Cultaque Iudaeo septima sacra Syro.
• Nec fuge linigerae Memphitica templa iuvencae:
• Multas illa facit, quod fuit ipsa Iovi.
• Et fora conveniunt (quis credere possit?) amori:
• Flammaque in arguto saepe reperta foro:
• Subdita qua Veneris facto de marmore templo
• Appias expressis aera pulsat aquis,
• Illo saepe loco capitur consultus Amori,
• Quique aliis cavit, non cavet ipse sibi:
• Illo saepe loco desunt sua verba diserto,
• Resque novae veniunt, causaque agenda sua est.
• Hunc Venus e templis, quae sunt confinia, ridet:
• Qui modo patronus, nunc cupit esse cliens.
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• Sed tu praecipue curvis venare theatris:
• Haec loca sunt voto fertiliora tuo.
• Illic invenies quod ames, quod ludere possis,
• Quodque semel tangas, quodque tenere velis.
• Ut redit itque frequens longum formica per agmen,
• Granifero solitum cum vehit ore cibum,
• Aut ut apes saltusque suos et olentia nactae
• Pascua per flores et thyma summa volant,
• Sic ruit ad celebres cultissima femina ludos:
• Copia iudicium saepe morata meum est.
• Spectatum veniunt, veniunt spectentur ut ipsae:
• Ille locus casti damna pudoris habet.
• Primus sollicitos fecisti, Romule, ludos,
• Cum iuvit viduos rapta Sabina viros.
• Tunc neque marmoreo pendebant vela theatro,
• Nec fuerant liquido pulpita rubra croco;
• Illic quas tulerant nemorosa Palatia, frondes
• Simpliciter positae, scena sine arte fuit;
• In gradibus sedit populus de caespite factis,
• Qualibet hirsutas fronde tegente comas.
• Respiciunt, oculisque notant sibi quisque puellam
• Quam velit, et tacito pectore multa movent.
• Dumque, rudem praebente modum tibicine Tusco,
• Ludius aequatam ter pede pulsat humum,
• In medio plausu (plausus tunc arte carebant)
• Rex populo praedae signa petita dedit.
• Protinus exiliunt, animum clamore fatentes,
• Virginibus cupidas iniciuntque manus.
• Ut fugiunt aquilas, timidissima turba, columbae,
• Ut fugit invisos agna novella lupos:
• Sic illae timuere viros sine more ruentes;
• Constitit in nulla qui fuit ante color.
• Nam timor unus erat, facies non una timoris:
• Pars laniat crines, pars sine mente sedet;
• Altera maesta silet, frustra vocat altera matrem:
• Haec queritur, stupet haec; haec manet, illa fugit;
• Ducuntur raptae, genialis praeda, puellae,
• Et potuit multas ipse decere timor.
• Siqua repugnarat nimium comitemque negabat,
• Sublatam cupido vir tulit ipse sinu,
• Atque ita «quid teneros lacrimis corrumpis ocellos?
• Quod matri pater est, hoc tibi» dixit «ero.»
• Romule, militibus scisti dare commoda solus:
• Haec mihi si dederis commoda, miles ero.
• Scilicet ex illo sollemnia more theatra
• Nunc quoque formosis insidiosa manent.
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• Nec te nobilium fugiat certamen equorum;
• Multa capax populi commoda Circus habet.
• Nil opus est digitis, per quos arcana loquaris,
• Nec tibi per nutus accipienda nota est:
• Proximus a domina, nullo prohibente, sedeto,
• Iunge tuum lateri qua potes usque latus;
• Et bene, quod cogit, si nolis, linea iungi,
• Quod tibi tangenda est lege puella loci.
• Hic tibi quaeratur socii sermonis origo,
• Et moveant primos publica verba sonos.
• Cuius equi veniant, facito, studiose, requiras:
• Nec mora, quisquis erit, cui favet illa, fave.
• At cum pompa frequens caelestibus ibit eburnis,
• Tu Veneri dominae plaude favente manu;
• Utque fit, in gremium pulvis si forte puellae
• Deciderit, digitis excutiendus erit:
• Etsi nullus erit pulvis, tamen excute nullum:
• Quaelibet officio causa sit apta tuo.
• Pallia si terra nimium demissa iacebunt,
• Collige, et inmunda sedulus effer humo;
• Protinus, officii pretium, patiente puella
• Contingent oculis crura videnda tuis.
• Respice praeterea, post vos quicumque sedebit,
• Ne premat opposito mollia terga genu.
• Parva leves capiunt animos: fuit utile multis
• Pulvinum facili composuisse manu.
• Profuit et tenui ventos movisse tabella,
• Et cava sub tenerum scamna dedisse pedem.
• Hos aditus Circusque novo praebebit amori,
• Sparsaque sollicito tristis harena foro.
• Illa saepe puer Veneris pugnavit harena,
• Et qui spectavit vulnera, vulnus habet.
• Dum loquitur tangitque manum poscitque libellum
• Et quaerit posito pignore, vincat uter,
• Saucius ingemuit telumque volatile sensit,
• Et pars spectati muneris ipse fuit.
• Quid, modo cum belli navalis imagine Caesar
• Persidas induxit Cecropiasque rates?
• Nempe ab utroque mari iuvenes, ab utroque puellae
• Venere, atque ingens orbis in Urbe fuit.
• Quis non invenit turba, quod amaret, in illa?
• Eheu, quam multos advena torsit amor!
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• Ecce, parat Caesar domito quod defuit orbi
• Addere: nunc, oriens ultime, noster eris.
• Parthe, dabis poenas: Crassi gaudete sepulti,
• Signaque barbaricas non bene passa manus.
• Ultor adest, primisque ducem profitetur in annis,
• Bellaque non puero tractat agenda puer.
• Parcite natales timidi numerare deorum:
• Caesaribus virtus contigit ante diem.
• Ingenium caeleste suis velocius annis
• Surgit, et ignavae fert male damna morae.
• Parvus erat, manibusque duos Tirynthius angues
• Pressit, et in cunis iam Iove dignus erat.
• Nunc quoque qui puer es, quantus tum, Bacche, fuisti,
• Cum timuit thyrsos India victa tuos?
• Auspiciis annisque patris, puer, arma movebis,
• Et vinces annis auspiciisque patris:
• Tale rudimentum tanto sub nomine debes,
• Nunc iuvenum princeps, deinde future senum;
• Cum tibi sint fratres, fratres ulciscere laesos:
• Cumque pater tibi sit, iura tuere patris.
• Induit arma tibi genitor patriaeque tuusque:
• Hostis ab invito regna parente rapit;
• Tu pia tela feres, sceleratas ille sagittas:
• Stabit pro signis iusque piumque tuis.
• Vincuntur causa Parthi: vincantur et armis;
• Eoas Latio dux meus addat opes.
• Marsque pater Caesarque pater, date numen eunti:
• Nam deus e vobis alter es, alter eris.
• Auguror, en, vinces; votivaque carmina reddam,
• Et magno nobis ore sonandus eris.
• Consistes, aciemque meis hortabere verbis;
• O desint animis ne mea verba tuis!
• Tergaque Parthorum Romanaque pectora dicam,
• Telaque, ab averso quae iacit hostis equo.
• Qui fugis ut vincas, quid victo, Parthe, relinquis?
• Parthe, malum iam nunc Mars tuus omen habet.
• Ergo erit illa dies, qua tu, pulcherrime rerum,
• Quattuor in niveis aureus ibis equis.
• Ibunt ante duces onerati colla catenis,
• Ne possint tuti, qua prius, esse fuga.
• Spectabunt laeti iuvenes mixtaeque puellae,
• Diffundetque animos omnibus ista dies.
• Atque aliqua ex illis cum regum nomina quaeret,
• Quae loca, qui montes, quaeve ferantur aquae,
• Omnia responde, nec tantum siqua rogabit;
• Et quae nescieris, ut bene nota refer.
• Hic est Euphrates, praecinctus harundine frontem:
• Cui coma dependet caerula, Tigris erit.
• Hos facito Armenios; haec est Danaeia Persis:
• Urbs in Achaemeniis vallibus ista fuit.
• Ille vel ille, duces; et erunt quae nomina dicas,
• Si poteris, vere, si minus, apta tamen.
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• Dant etiam positis aditum convivia mensis:
• Est aliquid praeter vina, quod inde petas.
• Saepe illic positi teneris adducta lacertis
• Purpureus Bacchi cornua pressit Amor:
• Vinaque cum bibulas sparsere Cupidinis alas,
• Permanet et capto stat gravis ille loco.
• Ille quidem pennas velociter excutit udas:
• Sed tamen et spargi pectus amore nocet.
• Vina parant animos faciuntque caloribus aptos:
• Cura fugit multo diluiturque mero.
• Tunc veniunt risus, tum pauper cornua sumit,
• Tum dolor et curae rugaque frontis abit.
• Tunc aperit mentes aevo rarissima nostro
• Simplicitas, artes excutiente deo.
• Illic saepe animos iuvenum rapuere puellae,
• Et Venus in vinis ignis in igne fuit.
• Hic tu fallaci nimium ne crede lucernae:
• Iudicio formae noxque merumque nocent.
• Luce deas caeloque Paris spectavit aperto,
• Cum dixit Veneri «vincis utramque, Venus.»
• Nocte latent mendae, vitioque ignoscitur omni,
• Horaque formosam quamlibet illa facit.
• Consule de gemmis, de tincta murice lana,
• Consule de facie corporibusque diem.
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• Quid tibi femineos coetus venatibus aptos
• Enumerem? numero cedet harena meo.
• Quid referam Baias, praetextaque litora velis,
• Et quae de calido sulpure fumat aqua?
• Hinc aliquis vulnus referens in pectore dixit
• «Non haec, ut fama est, unda salubris erat.»
• Ecce suburbanae templum nemorale Dianae
• Partaque per gladios regna nocente manu:
• Illa, quod est virgo, quod tela Cupidinis odit,
• Multa dedit populo vulnera, multa dabit.
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• Hactenus, unde legas quod ames, ubi retia ponas,
• Praecipit imparibus vecta Thalea rotis.
• Nunc tibi, quae placuit, quas sit capienda per artes,
• Dicere praecipuae molior artis opus.
• Quisquis ubique, viri, dociles advertite mentes,
• Pollicitisque favens, vulgus, adeste meis.
• Prima tuae menti veniat fiducia, cunctas
• Posse capi; capies, tu modo tende plagas.
• Vere prius volucres taceant, aestate cicadae,
• Maenalius lepori det sua terga canis,
• Femina quam iuveni blande temptata repugnet:
• Haec quoque, quam poteris credere nolle, volet.
• Utque viro furtiva venus, sic grata puellae:
• Vir male dissimulat: tectius illa cupit.
• Conveniat maribus, nequam nos ante rogemus,
• Femina iam partes victa rogantis agat.
• Mollibus in pratis admugit femina tauro:
• Femina cornipedi semper adhinnit equo.
• Parcior in nobis nec tam furiosa libido:
• Legitimum finem flamma virilis habet.
• Byblida quid referam, vetito quae fratris amore
• Arsit et est laqueo fortiter ulta nefas?
• Myrrha patrem, sed non qua filia debet, amavit,
• Et nunc obducto cortice pressa latet:
• Illius lacrimis, quas arbore fundit odora,
• Unguimur, et dominae nomina gutta tenet.
• Forte sub umbrosis nemorosae vallibus Idae
• Candidus, armenti gloria, taurus erat,
• Signatus tenui media inter cornua nigro:
• Una fuit labes, cetera lactis erant.
• Illum Cnosiadesque Cydoneaeque iuvencae
• Optarunt tergo sustinuisse suo.
• Pasiphae fieri gaudebat adultera tauri;
• Invida formosas oderat illa boves.
• Nota cano: non hoc, centum quae sustinet urbes,
• Quamvis sit mendax, Creta negare potest.
• Ipsa novas frondes et prata tenerrima tauro
• Fertur inadsueta subsecuisse manu.
• It comes armentis, nec ituram cura moratur
• Coniugis, et Minos a bove victus erat.
• Quo tibi, Pasiphae, pretiosas sumere vestes?
• Ille tuus nullas sentit adulter opes.
• Quid tibi cum speculo, montana armenta petenti?
• Quid totiens positas fingis, inepta, comas?
• Crede tamen speculo, quod te negat esse iuvencam.
• Quam cuperes fronti cornua nata tuae!
• Sive placet Minos, nullus quaeratur adulter:
• Sive virum mavis fallere, falle viro!
• In nemus et saltus thalamo regina relicto
• Fertur, ut Aonio concita Baccha deo.
• A, quotiens vaccam vultu spectavit iniquo,
• Et dixit «domino cur placet ista meo?
• Aspice, ut ante ipsum teneris exultet in herbis:
• Nec dubito, quin se stulta decere putet.»
• Dixit, et ingenti iamdudum de grege duci
• Iussit et inmeritam sub iuga curva trahi,
• Aut cadere ante aras commentaque sacra coegit,
• Et tenuit laeta paelicis exta manu.
• Paelicibus quotiens placavit numina caesis,
• Atque ait, exta tenens «ite, placete meo!»
• Et modo se Europen fieri, modo postulat Io,
• Altera quod bos est, altera vecta bove.
• Hanc tamen implevit, vacca deceptus acerna,
• Dux gregis, et partu proditus auctor erat.
• Cressa Thyesteo si se abstinuisset amore
• (Et quantum est uno posse carere viro?),
• Non medium rupisset iter, curruque retorto
• Auroram versis Phoebus adisset equis.
• Filia purpureos Niso furata capillos
• Pube premit rabidos inguinibusque canes.
• Qui Martem terra, Neptunum effugit in undis,
• Coniugis Atrides victima dira fuit.
• Cui non defleta est Ephyraeae flamma Creusae,
• Et nece natorum sanguinolenta parens?
• Flevit Amyntorides per inania lumina Phoenix:
• Hippolytum pavidi diripuistis equi.
• Quid fodis inmeritis, Phineu, sua lumina natis?
• Poena reversura est in caput ista tuum.
• Omnia feminea sunt ista libidine mota;
• Acrior est nostra, plusque furoris habet.
• Ergo age, ne dubita cunctas sperare puellas;
• Vix erit e multis, quae neget, una, tibi.
• Quae dant quaeque negant, gaudent tamen esse rogatae:
• Ut iam fallaris, tuta repulsa tua est.
• Sed cur fallaris, cum sit nova grata voluptas
• Et capiant animos plus aliena suis?
• Fertilior seges est alienis semper in agris,
• Vicinumque pecus grandius uber habet.
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• Sed prius ancillam captandae nosse puellae
• Cura sit: accessus molliet illa tuos.
• Proxima consiliis dominae sit ut illa, videto,
• Neve parum tacitis conscia fida iocis.
• Hanc tu pollicitis, hanc tu corrumpe rogando:
• Quod petis, ex facili, si volet illa, feres.
• Illa leget tempus (medici quoque tempora servant)
• Quo facilis dominae mens sit et apta capi.
• Mens erit apta capi tum, cum laetissima rerum
• Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo.
• Pectora dum gaudent nec sunt adstricta dolore,
• Ipsa patent, blanda tum subit arte Venus.
• Tum, cum tristis erat, defensa est Ilios armis:
• Militibus gravidum laeta recepit equum.
• Tum quoque temptanda est, cum paelice laesa dolebit:
• Tum facies opera, ne sit inulta, tua.
• Hanc matutinos pectens ancilla capillos
• Incitet, et velo remigis addat opem,
• Et secum tenui suspirans murmure dicat
• «At, puto, non poteras ipsa referre vicem.»
• Tum de te narret, tum persuadentia verba
• Addat, et insano iuret amore mori.
• Sed propera, ne vela cadant auraeque residant:
• Ut fragilis glacies, interit ira mora.
• Quaeris, an hanc ipsam prosit violare ministram?
• Talibus admissis alea grandis inest.
• Haec a concubitu fit sedula, tardior illa,
• Haec dominae munus te parat, illa sibi.
• Casus in eventu est: licet hic indulgeat ausis,
• Consilium tamen est abstinuisse meum.
• Non ego per praeceps et acuta cacumina vadam,
• Nec iuvenum quisquam me duce captus erit.
• Si tamen illa tibi, dum dat recipitque tabellas,
• Corpore, non tantum sedulitate placet,
• Fac domina potiare prius, comes illa sequatur:
• Non tibi ab ancilla est incipienda venus.
• Hoc unum moneo, siquid modo creditur arti,
• Nec mea dicta rapax per mare ventus agit:
• Aut non rem temptes aut perfice; tollitur index,
• Cum semel in partem criminis ipsa venit.
• Non avis utiliter viscatis effugit alis;
• Non bene de laxis cassibus exit aper.
• Saucius arrepto piscis teneatur ab hamo:
• Perprime temptatam, nec nisi victor abi.
• Tunc neque te prodet communi noxia culpa,
• Factaque erunt dominae dictaque nota tibi.
• Sed bene celetur: bene si celabitur index,
• Notitiae suberit semper amica tuae.
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• Tempora qui solis operosa colentibus arva,
• Fallitur, et nautis aspicienda putat;
• Nec semper credenda ceres fallacibus arvis,
• Nec semper viridi concava puppis aquae,
• Nec teneras semper tutum captare puellas:
• Saepe dato melius tempore fiet idem.
• Sive dies suberit natalis, sive Kalendae,
• Quas Venerem Marti continuasse iuvat,
• Sive erit ornatus non ut fuit ante sigillis,
• Sed regum positas Circus habebit opes,
• Differ opus: tunc tristis hiems, tunc Pliades instant,
• Tunc tener aequorea mergitur Haedus aqua;
• Tunc bene desinitur: tunc siquis creditur alto,
• Vix tenuit lacerae naufraga membra ratis.
• Tu licet incipias qua flebilis Allia luce
• Vulneribus Latiis sanguinolenta fluit,
• Quaque die redeunt, rebus minus apta gerendis,
• Culta Palaestino septima festa Syro.
• Magna superstitio tibi sit natalis amicae:
• Quaque aliquid dandum est, illa sit atra dies.
• Cum bene vitaris, tamen auferet; invenit artem
• Femina, qua cupidi carpat amantis opes.
• Institor ad dominam veniet discinctus emacem,
• Expediet merces teque sedente suas:
• Quas illa, inspicias, sapere ut videare, rogabit:
• Oscula deinde dabit; deinde rogabit, emas.
• Hoc fore contentam multos iurabit in annos,
• Nunc opus esse sibi, nunc bene dicet emi.
• Si non esse domi, quos des, causabere nummos,
• Littera poscetur ne didicisse iuvet.
• Quid, quasi natali cum poscit munera libo,
• Et, quotiens opus est, nascitur illa, sibi?
• Quid, cum mendaci damno maestissima plorat,
• Elapsusque cava fingitur aure lapis?
• Multa rogant utenda dari, data reddere nolunt:
• Perdis, et in damno gratia nulla tuo.
• Non mihi, sacrilegas meretricum ut persequar artes,
• Cum totidem linguis sint satis ora decem.
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• Cera vadum temptet, rasis infusa tabellis:
• Cera tuae primum conscia mentis eat.
• Blanditias ferat illa tuas imitataque amantem
• Verba; nec exiguas, quisquis es, adde preces.
• Hectora donavit Priamo prece motus Achilles;
• Flectitur iratus voce rogante deus.
• Promittas facito: quid enim promittere laedit?
• Pollicitis dives quilibet esse potest.
• Spes tenet in tempus, semel est si credita, longum:
• Illa quidem fallax, sed tamen apta dea est.
• Si dederis aliquid, poteris ratione relinqui:
• Praeteritum tulerit, perdideritque nihil.
• At quod non dederis, semper videare daturus:
• Sic dominum sterilis saepe fefellit ager:
• Sic, ne perdiderit, non cessat perdere lusor,
• Et revocat cupidas alea saepe manus.
• Hoc opus, hic labor est, primo sine munere iungi;
• Ne dederit gratis quae dedit, usque dabit.
• Ergo eat et blandis peraretur littera verbis,
• Exploretque animos, primaque temptet iter.
• Littera Cydippen pomo perlata fefellit,
• Insciaque est verbis capta puella suis.
• Disce bonas artes, moneo, Romana iuventus,
• Non tantum trepidos ut tueare reos;
• Quam populus iudexque gravis lectusque senatus,
• Tam dabit eloquio victa puella manus.
• Sed lateant vires, nec sis in fronte disertus;
• Effugiant voces verba molesta tuae.
• Quis, nisi mentis inops, tenerae declamat amicae?
• Saepe valens odii littera causa fuit.
• Sit tibi credibilis sermo consuetaque verba,
• Blanda tamen, praesens ut videare loqui.
• Si non accipiet scriptum, inlectumque remittet,
• Lecturam spera, propositumque tene.
• Tempore difficiles veniunt ad aratra iuvenci,
• Tempore lenta pati frena docentur equi:
• Ferreus adsiduo consumitur anulus usu,
• Interit adsidua vomer aduncus humo.
• Quid magis est saxo durum, quid mollius unda?
• Dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aqua.
• Penelopen ipsam, persta modo, tempore vinces:
• Capta vides sero Pergama, capta tamen.
• Legerit, et nolit rescribere? cogere noli:
• Tu modo blanditias fac legat usque tuas.
• Quae voluit legisse, volet rescribere lectis:
• Per numeros venient ista gradusque suos.
• Forsitan et primo veniet tibi littera tristis,
• Quaeque roget, ne se sollicitare velis.
• Quod rogat illa, timet; quod non rogat, optat, ut instes;
• Insequere, et voti postmodo compos eris.
•  
• Interea, sive illa toro resupina feretur,
• Lecticam dominae dissimulanter adi,
• Neve aliquis verbis odiosas offerat auris,
• Qua potes ambiguis callidus abde notis.
• Seu pedibus vacuis illi spatiosa teretur
• Porticus, hic socias tu quoque iunge moras:
• Et modo praecedas facito, modo terga sequaris,
• Et modo festines, et modo lentus eas:
• Nec tibi de mediis aliquot transire columnas
• Sit pudor, aut lateri continuasse latus;
• Nec sine te curvo sedeat speciosa theatro:
• Quod spectes, umeris adferet illa suis.
• Illam respicias, illam mirere licebit:
• Multa supercilio, multa loquare notis.
• Et plaudas, aliquam mimo saltante puellam:
• Et faveas illi, quisquis agatur amans.
• Cum surgit, surges; donec sedet illa, sedebis;
• Arbitrio dominae tempora perde tuae.
•  
• Sed tibi nec ferro placeat torquere capillos,
• Nec tua mordaci pumice crura teras.
• Ista iube faciant, quorum Cybeleia mater
• Concinitur Phrygiis exululata modis.
• Forma viros neglecta decet; Minoida Theseus
• Abstulit, a nulla tempora comptus acu.
• Hippolytum Phaedra, nec erat bene cultus, amavit;
• Cura deae silvis aptus Adonis erat.
• Munditie placeant, fuscentur corpora Campo:
• Sit bene conveniens et sine labe toga:
• Lingula ne rigeat, careant rubigine dentes,
• Nec vagus in laxa pes tibi pelle natet:
• Nec male deformet rigidos tonsura capillos:
• Sit coma, sit trita barba resecta manu.
• Et nihil emineant, et sint sine sordibus ungues:
• Inque cava nullus stet tibi nare pilus.
• Nec male odorati sit tristis anhelitus oris:
• Nec laedat naris virque paterque gregis.
• Cetera lascivae faciant, concede, puellae,
• Et siquis male vir quaerit habere virum.
•  
• Ecce, suum vatem Liber vocat; hic quoque amantes
• Adiuvat, et flammae, qua calet ipse, favet.
• Cnosis in ignotis amens errabat harenis,
• Qua brevis aequoreis Dia feritur aquis.
• Utque erat e somno tunica velata recincta,
• Nuda pedem, croceas inreligata comas,
• Thesea crudelem surdas clamabat ad undas,
• Indigno teneras imbre rigante genas.
• Clamabat, flebatque simul, sed utrumque decebat;
• Non facta est lacrimis turpior illa suis.
• Iamque iterum tundens mollissima pectora palmis
• «Perfidus ille abiit; quid mihi fiet?» ait.
• «Quid mihi fiet?» ait: sonuerunt cymbala toto
• Litore, et adtonita tympana pulsa manu.
• Excidit illa metu, rupitque novissima verba;
• Nullus in exanimi corpore sanguis erat.
• Ecce Mimallonides sparsis in terga capillis:
• Ecce leves satyri, praevia turba dei:
• Ebrius, ecce, senex pando Silenus asello
• Vix sedet, et pressas continet ante iubas.
• Dum sequitur Bacchas, Bacchae fugiuntque petuntque
• Quadrupedem ferula dum malus urget eques,
• In caput aurito cecidit delapsus asello:
• Clamarunt satyri «surge age, surge, pater.»
• Iam deus in curru, quem summum texerat uvis,
• Tigribus adiunctis aurea lora dabat:
• Et color et Theseus et vox abiere puellae:
• Terque fugam petiit, terque retenta metu est.
• Horruit, ut graciles, agitat quas ventus, aristae,
• Ut levis in madida canna palude tremit.
• Cui deus «en, adsum tibi cura fidelior» inquit:
• «Pone metum: Bacchi, Cnosias, uxor eris.
• Munus habe caelum; caelo spectabere sidus;
• Saepe reges dubiam Cressa Corona ratem.»
• Dixit, et e curru, ne tigres illa timeret,
• Desilit; inposito cessit harena pede:
• Implicitamque sinu (neque enim pugnare valebat)
• Abstulit; in facili est omnia posse deo.
• Pars «Hymenaee» canunt, pars clamant «Euhion, euhoe!»
• Sic coeunt sacro nupta deusque toro.
• Ergo ubi contigerint positi tibi munera Bacchi,
• Atque erit in socii femina parte tori,
• Nycteliumque patrem nocturnaque sacra precare,
• Ne iubeant capiti vina nocere tuo.
• Hic tibi multa licet sermone latentia tecto
• Dicere, quae dici sentiat illa sibi:
• Blanditiasque leves tenui perscribere vino,
• Ut dominam in mensa se legat illa tuam:
• Atque oculos oculis spectare fatentibus ignem:
• Saepe tacens vocem verbaque vultus habet.
• Fac primus rapias illius tacta labellis
• Pocula, quaque bibet parte puella, bibas:
• Et quemcumque cibum digitis libaverit illa,
• Tu pete, dumque petis, sit tibi tacta manus.
• Sint etiam tua vota, viro placuisse puellae:
• Utilior vobis factus amicus erit.
• Huic, si sorte bibes, sortem concede priorem:
• Huic detur capiti missa corona tuo.
• Sive erit inferior, seu par, prior omnia sumat:
• Nec dubites illi verba secunda loqui.
• Tuta frequensque via est, per amici fallere nomen:
• Tuta frequensque licet sit via, crimen habet.
• Inde procurator nimium quoque multa procurat,
• Et sibi mandatis plura videnda putat.
• Certa tibi a nobis dabitur mensura bibendi:
• Officium praestent mensque pedesque suum.
• Iurgia praecipue vino stimulata caveto,
• Et nimium faciles ad fera bella manus.
• Occidit Eurytion stulte data vina bibendo;
• Aptior est dulci mensa merumque ioco.
• Si vox est, canta: si mollia brachia, salta:
• Et quacumque potes dote placere, place.
• Ebrietas ut vera nocet, sic ficta iuvabit:
• Fac titubet blaeso subdola lingua sono,
• Ut, quicquid facias dicasve protervius aequo,
• Credatur nimium causa fuisse merum.
• Et bene dic dominae, bene, cum quo dormiat illa;
• Sed, male sit, tacita mente precare, viro.
• At cum discedet mensa conviva remota,
• Ipsa tibi accessus turba locumque dabit.
• Insere te turbae, leviterque admotus eunti
• Velle latus digitis, et pede tange pedem.
• Conloquii iam tempus adest; fuge rustice longe
• Hinc pudor; audentem Forsque Venusque iuvat.
• Non tua sub nostras veniat facundia leges:
• Fac tantum cupias, sponte disertus eris.
• Est tibi agendus amans, imitandaque vulnera verbis;
• Haec tibi quaeratur qualibet arte fides.
• Nec credi labor est: sibi quaeque videtur amanda;
• Pessima sit, nulli non sua forma placet.
• Saepe tamen vere coepit simulator amare,
• Saepe, quod incipiens finxerat esse, fuit.
• Quo magis, o, faciles imitantibus este, puellae:
• Fiet amor verus, qui modo falsus erat.
• Blanditiis animum furtim deprendere nunc sit,
• Ut pendens liquida ripa subestur aqua.
• Nec faciem, nec te pigeat laudare capillos
• Et teretes digitos exiguumque pedem:
• Delectant etiam castas praeconia formae;
• Virginibus curae grataque forma sua est.
• Nam cur in Phrygiis Iunonem et Pallada silvis
• Nunc quoque iudicium non tenuisse pudet?
• Laudatas ostendit avis Iunonia pinnas:
• Si tacitus spectes, illa recondit opes.
• Quadrupedes inter rapidi certamina cursus
• Depexaeque iubae plausaque colla iuvant.
•  
• Nec timide promitte: trahunt promissa puellas;
• Pollicito testes quoslibet adde deos.
• Iuppiter ex alto periuria ridet amantum,
• Et iubet Aeolios inrita ferre notos.
• Per Styga Iunoni falsum iurare solebat
• Iuppiter; exemplo nunc favet ipse suo.
• Expedit esse deos, et, ut expedit, esse putemus;
• Dentur in antiquos tura merumque focos;
• Nec secura quies illos similisque sopori
• Detinet; innocue vivite: numen adest;
• Reddite depositum; pietas sua foedera servet:
• Fraus absit; vacuas caedis habete manus.
• Ludite, si sapitis, solas impune puellas:
• Hac minus est una fraude tuenda fides.
• Fallite fallentes: ex magna parte profanum
• Sunt genus: in laqueos quos posuere, cadant.
• Dicitur Aegyptos caruisse iuvantibus arva
• Imbribus, atque annos sicca fuisse novem,
• Cum Thrasius Busirin adit, monstratque piari
• Hospitis adfuso sanguine posse Iovem.
• Illi Busiris «fies Iovis hostia primus,»
• Inquit «et Aegypto tu dabis hospes aquam.»
• Et Phalaris tauro violenti membra Perilli
• Torruit: infelix inbuit auctor opus.
• Iustus uterque fuit: neque enim lex aequior ulla est,
• Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.
• Ergo ut periuras merito periuria fallant,
• Exemplo doleat femina laesa suo.
•  
• Et lacrimae prosunt: lacrimis adamanta movebis:
• Fac madidas videat, si potes, illa genas.
• Si lacrimae (neque enim veniunt in tempore semper)
• Deficient, uda lumina tange manu.
• Quis sapiens blandis non misceat oscula verbis?
• Illa licet non det, non data sume tamen.
• Pugnabit primo fortassis, et «improbe» dicet:
• Pugnando vinci se tamen illa volet.
• Tantum ne noceant teneris male rapta labellis,
• Neve queri possit dura fuisse, cave.
• Oscula qui sumpsit, si non et cetera sumet,
• Haec quoque, quae data sunt, perdere dignus erit.
• Quantum defuerat pleno post oscula voto?
• Ei mihi, rusticitas, non pudor ille fuit.
• Vim licet appelles: grata est vis ista puellis:
• Quod iuvat, invitae saepe dedisse volunt.
• Quaecumque est veneris subita violata rapina,
• Gaudet, et inprobitas muneris instar habet.
• At quae cum posset cogi, non tacta recessit,
• Ut simulet vultu gaudia, tristis erit.
• Vim passa est Phoebe: vis est allata sorori;
• Et gratus raptae raptor uterque fuit.
• Fabula nota quidem, sed non indigna referri,
• Scyrias Haemonio iuncta puella viro.
• Iam dea laudatae dederat mala praemia formae
• Colle sub Idaeo vincere digna duas:
• Iam nurus ad Priamum diverso venerat orbe,
• Graiaque in Iliacis moenibus uxor erat:
• Iurabant omnes in laesi verba mariti:
• Nam dolor unius publica causa fuit.
• Turpe, nisi hoc matris precibus tribuisset, Achilles
• Veste virum longa dissimulatus erat.
• Quid facis, Aeacide? non sunt tua munera lanae;
• Tu titulos alia Palladis arte petas.
• Quid tibi cum calathis? clipeo manus apta ferendo est:
• Pensa quid in dextra, qua cadet Hector, habes?
• Reice succinctos operoso stamine fusos!
• Quassanda est ista Pelias hasta manu.
• Forte erat in thalamo virgo regalis eodem;
• Haec illum stupro comperit esse virum.
• Viribus illa quidem victa est, ita credere oportet:
• Sed voluit vinci viribus illa tamen.
• Saepe «mane!» dixit, cum iam properaret Achilles;
• Fortia nam posita sumpserat arma colo.
• Vis ubi nunc illa est? Quid blanda voce moraris
• Auctorem stupri, Deidamia, tui?
• Scilicet ut pudor est quaedam coepisse priorem,
• Sic alio gratum est incipiente pati.
• A! nimia est iuveni propriae fiducia formae,
• Expectat siquis, dum prior illa roget.
• Vir prior accedat, vir verba precantia dicat:
• Excipiet blandas comiter illa preces.
• Ut potiare, roga: tantum cupit illa rogari;
• Da causam voti principiumque tui.
• Iuppiter ad veteres supplex heroidas ibat:
• Corrupit magnum nulla puella Iovem.
• Si tamen a precibus tumidos accedere fastus
• Senseris, incepto parce referque pedem.
• Quod refugit, multae cupiunt: odere quod instat;
• Lenius instando taedia tolle tui.
• Nec semper veneris spes est profitenda roganti:
• Intret amicitiae nomine tectus amor.
• Hoc aditu vidi tetricae data verba puellae:
• Qui fuerat cultor, factus amator erat.
•  
• Candidus in nauta turpis color, aequoris unda
• Debet et a radiis sideris esse niger:
• Turpis et agricolae, qui vomere semper adunco
• Et gravibus rastris sub Iove versat humum.
• Et tibi, Palladiae petitur cui fama coronae,
• Candida si fuerint corpora, turpis eris.
• Palleat omnis amans: hic est color aptus amanti;
• Hoc decet, hoc stulti non valuisse putant.
• Pallidus in Side silvis errabat Orion,
• Pallidus in lenta naide Daphnis erat.
• Arguat et macies animum: nec turpe putaris
• Palliolum nitidis inposuisse comis.
• Attenuant iuvenum vigilatae corpora noctes
• Curaque et in magno qui fit amore dolor.
• Ut voto potiare tuo, miserabilis esto,
• Ut qui te videat, dicere possit «amas.»
• Conquerar, an moneam mixtum fas omne nefasque?
• Nomen amicitia est, nomen inane fides.
• Ei mihi, non tutum est, quod ames, laudare sodali;
• Cum tibi laudanti credidit, ipse subit.
• At non Actorides lectum temeravit Achillis:
• Quantum ad Pirithoum, Phaedra pudica fuit.
• Hermionam Pylades quo Pallada Phoebus, amabat,
• Quodque tibi geminus, Tyndari, Castor, erat.
• Siquis idem sperat, laturas poma myricas
• Speret, et e medio flumine mella petat.
• Nil nisi turpe iuvat: curae sua cuique voluptas:
• Haec quoque ab alterius grata dolore venit.
• Heu facinus! non est hostis metuendus amanti;
• Quos credis fidos, effuge, tutus eris.
• Cognatum fratremque cave carumque sodalem:
• Praebebit veros haec tibi turba metus.
•  
• Finiturus eram, sed sunt diversa puellis
• Pectora: mille animos excipe mille modis.
• Nec tellus eadem parit omnia; vitibus illa
• Convenit, haec oleis; hac bene farra virent.
• Pectoribus mores tot sunt, quot in ore figurae;
• Qui sapit, innumeris moribus aptus erit,
• Utque leves Proteus modo se tenuabit in undas,
• Nunc leo, nunc arbor, nunc erit hirtus aper.
• Hi iaculo pisces, illi capiuntur ab hamis:
• Hos cava contento retia fune trahunt.
• Nec tibi conveniet cunctos modus unus ad annos:
• Longius insidias cerva videbit anus.
• Si doctus videare rudi, petulansve pudenti,
• Diffidet miserae protinus illa sibi.
• Inde fit, ut quae se timuit committere honesto,
• Vilis ad amplexus inferioris eat.
• Pars superat coepti, pars est exhausta laboris.
• Hic teneat nostras ancora iacta rates.

The Art Of Love
Book I

• Part I: His Task
• Should anyone here not know the art of love,
• read this, and learn by reading how to love.
• By art the boat's set gliding, with oar and sail,
• by art the chariot's swift: love's ruled by art.
• Automedon was skilled with Achilles's chariot reins,
• Tiphys in Thessaly was steersman of the Argo,
• Venus appointed me as guide to gentle Love:
• I'll be known as Love's Tiphys, and Automedon.
• It's true Love's wild, and one who often flouts me:
• but he's a child of tender years, fit to be ruled.
• Chiron made the young Achilles perfect at the lyre,
• and tempered his wild spirits through peaceful art.
• He, who so terrified his enemies and friends,
• they say he greatly feared the aged Centaur.
• That hand that Hector was destined to know,
• was held out, at his master's orders, to be flogged.
• I am Love's teacher as Chiron was Achilles's,
• both wild boys, both children of a goddess.
• Yet the bullock's neck is bowed beneath the yoke,
• and the spirited horse's teeth worn by the bit.
• And Love will yield to me, though with his bow
• he wounds my heart, shakes at me his burning torch.
• The more he pierces me, the more violently he burns me,
• so much the fitter am I to avenge the wounds.
• Nor will I falsely say you gave me the art, Apollo,
• no voice from a heavenly bird gives me advice,
• I never caught sight of Clio or Clio's sisters
• while herding the flocks, Ascra, in your valleys:
• Experience prompts this work: listen to the expert poet:
• I sing true: Venus, help my venture!
• Far away from here, you badges of modesty,
• the thin headband, the ankle-covering dress.
• I sing of safe love, permissible intrigue,
• and there'll be nothing sinful in my song.
• Now the first task for you who come as a raw recruit
• is to find out who you might wish to love.
• The next task is to make sure that she likes you:
• the third, to see to it that the love will last.
• That's my aim, that's the ground my chariot will cover:
• that's the post my thundering wheels will scrape.
• Part II: How to Find Her
• While you're still free, and can roam on a loose rein,
• pick one to whom you could say: ‘You alone please me.'
• She won't come falling for you out of thin air:
• the right girl has to be searched for: use your eyes.
• The hunter knows where to spread nets for the stag,
• he knows what valleys hide the angry boar:
• the wild-fowler knows the woods: the fisherman
• knows the waters where the most fish spawn:
• You too, who search for the essence of lasting love,
• must be taught the places that the girls frequent.
• I don't demand you set your sails, and search,
• or wear out some long road to discover them.
• Perseus brought Andromeda from darkest India,
• and Trojan Paris snatched his girl from Greece,
• Rome will grant you lots of such lovely girls,
• you'll say: ‘Here's everything the world has had.'
• Your Rome's as many girls as Gargara's sheaves,
• as Methymna's grapes, as fishes in the sea,
• as birds in the hidden branches, stars in the sky:
• Venus, Aeneas's mother, haunts his city.
• If you'd catch them very young and not yet grown,
• real child-brides will come before your eyes:
• if it's young girls you want, thousands will please you.
• You'll be forced to be unsure of your desires:
• if you delight greatly in older wiser years,
• here too, believe me, there's an even greater crowd.
• Part III: Search while you're out Walking
• Just walk slowly under Pompey's shady colonnade,
• when the sun's in Leo, on the back of Hercules's lion:
• or where Octavia added to her dead son Marcellus's gifts,
• with those rich works of foreign marble.
• Don't miss the Portico that takes its name
• from Livia its creator, full of old masters:
• or where the daring Danaids prepare to murder their poor husbands,
• and their fierce father stands, with out-stretched sword.
• And don't forget the shrine of Adonis, Venus wept for,
• and the sacred Sabbath rites of the Syrian Jews.
• Don't skip the Memphite temple of the linen-clad heifer:
• she makes many a girl what she herself was to Jove.
• And the law-courts (who'd believe it?) they suit love:
• a flame is often found in the noisy courts:
• where the Appian waters pulse into the air,
• from under Venus's temple, made of marble,
• there the lawyer's often caught by love,
• and he who guides others, fails to guide himself:
• in that place of eloquence often his words desert him,
• and a new case starts, his own cause is the brief.
• There Venus, from her neighbouring temples, laughs:
• he, who was once the counsel, now wants to be the client.
• Part IV: Or at the Theatre
• But hunt for them, especially, at the tiered theatre:
• that place is the most fruitful for your needs.
• There you'll find one to love, or one you can play with,
• one to be with just once, or one you might wish to keep.
• As ants return home often in long processions,
• carrying their favourite food in their mouths,
• or as the bees buzz through the flowers and thyme,
• among their pastures and fragrant chosen meadows,
• so our fashionable ladies crowd to the famous shows:
• my choice is often constrained by such richness.
• They come to see, they come to be seen as well:
• the place is fatal to chaste modesty.
• These shows were first made troublesome by Romulus,
• when the raped Sabines delighted unmarried men.
• Then no awnings hung from the marble theatre,
• the stage wasn't stained with saffron perfumes:
• Then what the shady Palatine provided, leaves
• simply placed, was all the artless scene:
• The audience sat on tiers made from turf,
• and covered their shaggy hair, as best they could, with leaves.
• They watched, and each with his eye observed the girl
• he wanted, and trembled greatly in his silent heart.
• While, to the measure of the homely Etruscan flute,
• the dancer, with triple beat, struck the levelled earth,
• amongst the applause (applause that was never artful then)
• the king gave the watched-for signal for the rape.
• They sprang up straightaway, showing their intent by shouting,
• and eagerly took possession of the women.
• As doves flee the eagle, in a frightened crowd,
• as the new-born lamb runs from the hostile wolf:
• so they fled in panic from the lawless men,
• and not one showed the colour she had before.
• Now they all fear as one, but not with one face of fear:
• Some tear their hair: some sit there, all will lost:
• one mourns silently, another cries for her mother in vain:
• one moans, one faints: one stays, while that one runs:
• the captive girls were led away, a joyful prize,
• and many made even fear itself look fitting.
• Whoever showed too much fight, and denied her lover,
• he held her clasped high to his loving heart,
• and said to her: ‘Why mar your tender cheeks with tears?
• as your father to your mother, I'll be to you.'
• Romulus, alone, knew what was fitting for soldiers:
• I'll be a soldier, if you give me what suits me.
• From that I suppose came the theatres' usual customs:
• now too they remain a snare for the beautiful.
• Part V: Or at the Races, or the Circus
• Don't forget the races, those noble stallions:
• the Circus holds room for a vast obliging crowd.
• No need here for fingers to give secret messages,
• nor a nod of the head to tell you she accepts:
• You can sit by your lady: nothing's forbidden,
• press your thigh to hers, as you can do, all the time:
• and it's good the rows force you close, even if you don't like it,
• since the girl is touched through the rules of the place.
• Now find your reason for friendly conversation,
• and first of all engage in casual talk.
• Make earnest enquiry whose those horses are:
• and rush to back her favourite, whatever it is.
• When the crowded procession of ivory gods goes by,
• you clap fervently for Lady Venus:
• if by chance a speck of dust falls in the girl's lap,
• as it may, let it be flicked away by your fingers:
• and if there's nothing, flick away the nothing:
• let anything be a reason for you to serve her.
• If her skirt is trailing too near the ground,
• lift it, and raise it carefully from the dusty earth:
• Straightaway, the prize for service, if she allows it,
• is that your eyes catch a glimpse of her legs.
• Don't forget to look at who's sitting behind you,
• that he doesn't press her sweet back with his knee.
• Small things please light minds: it's very helpful
• to puff up her cushion with a dextrous touch.
• And it's good to raise a breeze with a light fan,
• and set a hollow stool beneath her tender feet.
• And the Circus brings assistance to new love,
• and the scattered sand of the gladiator's ring.
• Venus' boy often fights in that sand,
• and who see wounds, themselves receive a wound.
• While talking, touching hands, checking the programme,
• and asking, having bet, which one will win,
• wounded he groans, and feels the winged dart,
• and himself becomes a part of the show he sees.
• When, lately, Caesar, in mock naval battle,
• exhibited the Greek and Persian fleets,
• surely young men and girls came from either coast,
• and all the peoples of the world were in the City?
• Who did not find one he might love in that crowd?
• Ah, how many were tortured by an alien love!
• Part VI: Triumphs are Good too!
• Behold, now Caesar's planning to add to our rule
• what's left of earth: now the far East will be ours.
• Parthia, we'll have vengeance: Crassus's bust will cheer,
• and those standards wickedly laid low by barbarians.
• The avenger's here, the leader, proclaimed, of tender years,
• and a boy wages war's un-boy-like agenda.
• Cowards, don't count the birthdays of the gods:
• a Caesar's courage flowers before its time.
• Divine genius grows faster than its years,
• and suffers as harmful evils the cowardly delays.
• Hercules was a child when he crushed two serpents
• in both his hands, already worthy of Jupiter in his cradle.
• How old were you, Bacchus, who are still a boy,
• when conquered India trembled to your rod?
• Your father's years and powers arm you, boy,
• and with your father's powers and years you'll win:
• though your first beginnings must be in debt to such a name,
• now prince of the young, but one day prince of the old:
• Your brothers are with you, avenge your brothers' wounds:
• your father is with you, keep your father's laws.
• Your and your country's father endowed you with arms:
• the enemy stole his kingship from an unwilling parent:
• You hold a pious shaft, he a wicked arrow:
• Justice and piety stick to your standard.
• Let Parthia's cause be lost: and their armies:
• let my leader add Eastern wealth to Latium.
• Both your fathers, Mars and Caesar, grant you power:
• Through you one is a god, and one will be.
• See, I augur your triumph: I'll reply with a votive song,
• and you'll be greatly celebrated on my lips.
• You'll stand and exhort your troops with my words:
• O let my words not lack your courage!
• I'll speak of Parthian backs and Roman fronts,
• and shafts the enemy hurl from flying horses.
• If you flee, to win, Parthia, what's left for you in defeat?
• Mars already has your evil eye.
• So the day will be, when you, beautiful one,
• golden, will go by, drawn by four snowy horses.
• The generals will go before you, necks weighed down with chains,
• lest they flee to safety as they did before.
• The happy crowd of youths and girls will watch,
• that day will gladden every heart.
• And if she, among them, asks the name of a king,
• what place, what mountains, and what stream's displayed,
• you can reply to all, and more if she asks:
• and what you don't know, reply as memory prompts.
• That's Euphrates, his brow crowned with reeds:
• that'll be Tigris with the long green hair.
• I make those Armenians, that's Persia's Danaan crown:
• that was a town in the hills of Achaemenia.
• Him and him, they're generals: and say what names they have,
• if you can, the true ones, if not the most fitting.
• Part VII: There's always the Dinner-Table
• The table laid for a feast also gives you an opening:
• There's something more than wine you can look for there.
• Often rosy Love has clasped Bacchus's horns,
• drawing him to his gentle arms, as he lay there.
• And when wine has soaked Cupid's drunken wings,
• he's stayed, weighed down, a captive of the place.
• It's true he quickly shakes out his damp feathers:
• though still the heart that's sprinkled by love is hurt.
• Wine rouses courage and is fit for passion:
• care flies, and deep drinking dilutes it.
• Then laughter comes, the poor man dons the horns,
• then pain and sorrow leave, and wrinkled brows.
• Then what's rarest in our age appears to our minds,
• Simplicity: all art dispelled by the god.
• Often at that time girls captivated men's wits,
• and Venus was in the vine, flame in the fire.
• Don't trust the treacherous lamplight overmuch:
• night and wine can harm your view of beauty.
• Paris saw the goddesses in the light, a cloudless heaven,
• when he said to Venus: ‘Venus, you win, over them both.'
• Faults are hidden at night: every blemish is forgiven,
• and the hour makes whichever girl you like beautiful.
• Judge jewellery, and fabric stained with purple,
• judge a face, or a figure, in the light.
• Part VIII: And Finally There's the Beach
• Why enumerate every female meeting place fit for the hunter?
• The grains of sand give way before the number.
• Why speak of Baiae, its shore splendid with sails,
• where the waters steam with sulphurous heat?
• Here one returning, his heart wounded, said:
• ‘That water's not as healthy as they claim.'
• Behold the suburban woodland temple of Diana,
• and the kingdom murder rules with guilty hand.
• She, who is virgin, who hates Cupid's darts,
• gives people many wounds, has many to give.
• Part IX: How To Win Her
• So far, riding her unequal wheels, the Muse has taught you
• where you might choose your love, where to set your nets.
• Now I'll undertake to tell you what pleases her,
• by what arts she's caught, itself a work of highest art.
• Whoever you are, lovers everywhere, attend, with humble minds,
• and you, masses, show you support me: use your thumbs.
• First let faith enter into your mind: every one of them
• can be won: you'll win her, if you only set your snares.
• Birds will sooner be silent in the Spring, cicadas in summer,
• an Arcadian hound turn his back on a hare,
• than a woman refuse a young man's flattering words:
• Even she you might think dislikes it, will like it.
• Secret love's just as pleasing to women as men.
• Men pretend badly: she hides her desire.
• If it was proper for men not to be the first to ask,
• woman's role would be to take the part of the asker.
• The cow lows to the bull in gentle pastures:
• the mare whinnies to the hoofed stallion.
• Desire in us is milder and less frantic:
• the male fire has its lawful limits.
• Remember Byblis, who burned with incestuous love,
• for her brother, and bravely punished herself with the noose?
• Myrrha loved her father, but not as a daughter should,
• and then was hidden by the covering bark:
• oozing those tears, that pour from the tree as fragrance,
• and whose droplets take their name from the girl.
• Once, in the shady valleys of wooded Ida
• there was a white bull, glory of the herd,
• one small black mark set between his horns:
• it the sole blemish, the rest was milky-white.
• The heifers of Cnossos and Cydon longed
• to have him mount up on their backs.
• Pasiphae joyed in adultery with the bull:
• she hated the handsome heifers with jealousy.
• I sing what is well-known: not even Crete, the hundred-citied,
• can deny it, however much Cretans lie.
• They say that, with unpractised hands, she plucked
• fresh leaves and tenderest grasses for the bull.
• She went as one of the herd, unhindered by any care
• for that husband of hers: Minos was ousted by a bull.
• Why put on your finest clothes, Pasiphae?
• Your lover can appreciate none of your wealth.
• Why have a mirror with you, when you seek highland cattle?
• Why continually smooth your hair, you foolish woman?
• But believe the mirror that denies you're a heifer.
• How you wish that brow of yours could bear horns!
• If you'd please Minos, don't seek out adulterers:
• If you want to cheat your husband, cheat with a man!
• The queen left her marriage bed for woods and fields,
• like a Maenad roused by the Boeotian god, they say.
• Ah, how often, with angry face, she spied a cow,
• and said: ‘Now, how can she please my lord?
• Look, how she frisks before him in the tender grass:
• doubtless the foolish thing thinks that she's lovely.'
• She spoke, and straightaway had her led from the vast herd,
• the innocent thing dragged under the arching yoke,
• or felled before the altar, forced to be a false sacrifice,
• and, delighted, held her rival's entrails in her hand.
• The number of times she killed rivals to please the gods,
• and said, holding the entrails: ‘Go, and please him for me!'
• Now she claims to be Io, and now Europa,
• one who's a heifer, the other borne by the bull.
• Yet he filled her, the king of the herd, deceived
• by a wooden cow, and their offspring betrayed its breeding.
• If Cretan Aerope had spurned Thyestes's love
• (and isn't it hard to forego even one man?),
• the Sun would not have veered from his course mid-way,
• and turned back his chariot and horses towards Dawn.
• The daughter who savaged Nisus's purple lock
• presses rabid dogs down with her thighs and groin.
• Agamemnon who escaped Mars on land, Neptune at sea,
• became the victim of his murderous wife.
• Who would not weep at Corinthian Creusa's flames,
• and that mother bloodstained by her children's murder?
• Phoenix, Amyntor's son wept out of sightless eyes:
• Hippolytus was torn by his fear-maddened horses.
• Phineus, why blind your innocent sons?
• That punishment will return on your own head.
• All these things were driven by woman's lust:
• it's more fierce than ours, and more frenzied.
• So, on, and never hesitate in hoping for any woman:
• there's hardly one among them who'll deny you.
• Whether they give or not, they're delighted to be asked:
• And even if you fail, you'll escape unharmed.
• But why fail, when there's pleasure in new delights
• and the more foreign the more they capture the heart?
• The seed's often more fertile in foreign fields,
• and a neighbour's herd always has richer milk.
• Part X: First Secure the Maid
• But to get to know your desired-one's maid
• is your first care: she'll smooth your way.
• See if she's close to her mistress's thoughts,
• and has plenty of true knowledge of her secret jests.
• Corrupt her with promises, and with prayers:
• you'll easily get what you want, if she wishes.
• She'll tell the time (the doctors would know it too)
• when her mistress's mind is receptive, fit for love.
• Her mind will be fit for love when she luxuriates
• in fertility, like the crop on some rich soil.
• When hearts are glad, and nothing sad constrains them,
• they're open: Venus steals in then with seductive art.
• So Troy was defended with sorrowful conflict:
• in joy, the Horse, pregnant with soldiers, was received.
• She's also to be tried when she's wounded, pained by a rival:
• make it your task then to see that she's avenged.
• The maid can rouse her, when she combs her hair in the morning,
• and add her oar to the work of your sails,
• and, sighing to herself in a low murmur, say:
• ‘But I doubt that you'll be able to make her pay.'
• Then she should speak of you, and add persuasive words,
• and swear you're dying, crazed with love.
• But hurry, lest the sails fall and the breeze dies:
• anger melts away, with time, like fragile ice.
• You ask perhaps if one should take the maid herself?
• Such a plan brings the greatest risk with it.
• In one case, fresh from bed, she'll get busy, in another be tardy,
• in one case you're a prize for her mistress, in the other herself.
• There's chance in it: even if it favours the idea,
• my advice nevertheless is to abstain.
• I don't pick my way over sharp peaks and precipices,
• no youth will be caught out being lead by me.
• Still, while she's giving and taking messages,
• if her body pleases you as much as her zeal,
• make the lady your first priority, her companion the next:
• Love should never be begun with a servant.
• I warn you of this, if art's skill is to be believed,
• and don't let the wind blow my words out to sea:
• follow the thing through or don't attempt it:
• she'll endure the whispers once she's guilty herself.
• It's no help if the bird escapes when its wings are limed:
• it's no good if the boar gets free from a loosened net.
• Hold fast to the stricken fish you've caught on the hook:
• press home the attempt, don't leave off till you've won.
• She'll not give you away, sharing the guilt for the crime,
• and you'll know whatever your lady's done, and said.
• But hide it well: if the informer's well hidden,
• you'll always secretly know your mistress's mind.
• Part XI: Don't Forget Her Birthday!
• It's a mistake to think that only farmers working the fields,
• and sailors, need to keep an eye on the season:
• Seed can't always be trusted to the furrow,
• or a hollow ship to the wine-dark sea,
• It's not always safe to capture tender girls:
• often the time itself makes for success.
• If her birthday's here, or the April Kalends,
• that delight in joining months, Venus's to Mars,
• or if the Circus is decorated, not as before
• with clay figurines but with the wealth of kings,
• delay the thing: then winter's harsh, the Pleiades are here,
• then the tender Kid is merged with the ocean wave:
• it's best to hold off then: then he who trusts the deep,
• can scarcely save the wreckage of his mangled boat.
• It's fine to start on that day of tears when the Allia
• flowed with the blood poured from Roman wounds,
• or when the Sabbath day returns, the holy day
• of the Syrian Jews, less suitable for buying things.
• Let your mistress's birthday be one of great terror to you:
• that's a black day when anything has to be given.
• However much you avoid it, she'll still win: it's
• a woman's skill, to strip wealth from an ardent lover.
• A loose-robed pedlar comes to your lady: she likes to buy:
• and explains his prices while you're sitting there.
• She'll ask you to look, because you know what to look for:
• then kiss you: then ask you to buy her something there.
• She swears that she'll be happy with it, for years,
• but she needs it now, now the price is right.
• If you say you haven't the money in the house, she'll ask
• for a note of hand – and you're sorry you learnt to write.
• Why - she asks doesn't she for money as if it's her birthday,
• just for the cake, and how often it is her birthday, if she's in need?
• Why - she weeps doesn't she, mournfully, for a sham loss,
• that imaginary gem that fell from her pierced ear?
• They many times ask for gifts, they never give in return:
• you lose, and you'll get no thanks for your loss.
• And ten mouths with as many tongues wouldn't be enough
• for me to describe the wicked tricks of whores.
• Part XII: Write and Make Promises
• Try wax to pave the way, pour it out on scraped tablets:
• let wax be your mind's true confidante.
• Bring her your flattering words and play the lover:
• and, whoever you are, add a humble prayer.
• Achilles was moved by prayer to grant Hector's body to Priam:
• a god's anger's deflected by the voice of prayer.
• Make promises: what harm can a promise do?
• Anyone can be rich in promises.
• Hope lasts, if she's once believed in,
• a useful, though deceptive, goddess.
• If you've given, you can quite reasonably be forgotten:
• she carried it off, and now she's nothing to lose.
• But if you don't give, always appear about to:
• like barren fields that always cheat the farmer,
• like the gambler who goes on losing, lest he's finally lost,
• and calls the dice back endlessly into his eager hand.
• This is the work, the labour, to have her without giving first:
• and she'll go on giving, lest she lose what she's freely given.
• So go on, and send your letter's flattering words,
• try her intention, test the road out first.
• Cydippe was deceived by the message the apple brought,
• and unaware the girl by her own words was caught.
• I warn you, youths of Rome, learn the noble arts,
• not just to defend some trembling client:
• like the crowd, the grave judge, the elected senate,
• a woman will give her hand, won by eloquence.
• But let your powers be hidden, don't display your eloquence:
• let irksome words vanish from your speech.
• Who, but a mindless fool, declaims to his sweet friend?
• A strong letter often causes her displeasure.
• Let your speech be credible, use ordinary words,
• flattering though, speak as if you were present.
• If she won't receive the letter, returns it un-read,
• stick to your plan, and hope she'll read it later.
• In time stubborn oxen come to the plough,
• in time the horse learns to suffer the bridle:
• constant use wears away an iron ring,
• the curved plough's lost to the endless furrow.
• What's harder than stone, softer than water?
• Yet soft water carves the hardest stone.
• Once steadfast you'll conquer Penelope herself in time:
• you'll see Troy captive, though it's captured late.
• She reads and won't reply? Don't press her:
• just let her keep on reading your flattery.
• If she wants to read, she'll want to answer what she's read:
• such things proceed by number and by measure.
• Perhaps at first a cool letter comes to you,
• asking: would you please not trouble her.
• What she asks, she fears: what she doesn't ask, she wants,
• that you go on: do it, and you'll soon get what you wish.
• Part XIII: Be Where She Is
• Meanwhile, if she's being carried, reclining on her bed,
• secretly approach your lady's litter,
• and to avoid offering your words to odious ears,
• hide what you can with skill and ambiguous gestures.
• If she's wandering at leisure in the spacious Colonnade,
• you join here there also, lingering, as a friend:
• now make as if to lead the way, now drop behind,
• now go on quickly, and now take it slow:
• don't be ashamed to slip amongst the columns,
• a while, then move along side by side:
• don't let her sit all beautiful in the theatre row without you:
• what you'll look at is the way she holds her arms.
• Gaze at her, to admire her is fine:
• and to speak with gestures and with glances.
• And applaud, the man who dances the girl's part:
• and favour anyone who plays a lover.
• When she rises, rise: while she's sitting, sit:
• pass the time at your lady's whim.
• Part XIV: Look Presentable
• Don't delight in curling your hair with tongs,
• don't smooth your legs with sharp pumice stone.
• Leave that to those who celebrate Cybele the Mother,
• howling wildly in the Phrygian manner.
• Male beauty's better for neglect: Theseus
• carried off Ariadne, without a single pin in his hair.
• Phaedra loved Hippolytus: he was unsophisticated:
• Adonis was dear to the goddess, and fit for the woods.
• Neatness pleases, a body tanned from exercise:
• a well fitting and spotless toga's good:
• no stiff shoe-thongs, your buckles free of rust,
• no sloppy feet for you, swimming in loose hide:
• don't mar your neat hair with an evil haircut:
• let an expert hand trim your head and beard.
• And no long nails, and make sure they're dirt-free:
• and no hairs please, sprouting from your nostrils.
• No bad breath exhaled from unwholesome mouth:
• don't offend the nose like a herdsman or his flock.
• Leave the rest for impudent women to do,
• or whoever's the sort of man who needs a man.
• Part XV: At Dinner Be Bold
• Ah, Bacchus calls to his poet: he helps lovers too,
• and supports the fire with which he is inflamed.
• The frantic Cretan girl wandered the unknown sands,
• that the waters of tiny sea-borne Dia showed.
• Just as she was, from sleep, veiled by her loose robe,
• barefoot, with her yellow hair unbound,
• she called, for cruel Theseus, to the unhearing waves,
• her gentle cheeks wet with tears of shame.
• She called, and wept as well, but both became her,
• she was made no less beautiful by her tears.
• Now striking her sweet breast with her hands, again and again,
• she cried: ‘That faithless man's gone: what of me, now?
• What will happen to me?' she cried: and the whole shore
• echoed to the sound of cymbals and frenzied drums.
• She fainted in terror, her next words were stifled:
• no sign of blood in her almost lifeless body.
• Behold! The Bacchantes with loose streaming hair:
• Behold! The wanton Satyrs, a crowd before the god:
• Behold! Old Silenus, barely astride his swaybacked mule,
• clutching tightly to its mane in front.
• While he pursues the Bacchae, the Bacchae flee and return,
• as the rascal urges the mount on with his staff.
• He slips from his long-eared mule and falls headfirst:
• the Satyrs cry: ‘Rise again, father, rise,'
• Now the God in his chariot, wreathed with vines,
• curbing his team of tigers, with golden reins:
• the girl's voice and colour and Theseus all lost:
• three times she tried to run, three times fear held her back.
• She shook, like a slender stalk of wheat stirred by the wind,
• and trembled like a light reed in a marshy pool.
• To whom the god said: ‘See, I come, more faithful in love:
• have no fear: Cretan, you'll be bride to Bacchus.
• Take the heavens for dowry: be seen as heavenly stars:
• and guide the anxious sailor often to your Cretan Crown.'
• He spoke, and leapt from the chariot, lest she feared
• his tigers: the sand yielded under his feet:
• clasped in his arms (she had no power to struggle),
• he carried her away: all's easily possible to a god.
• Some sing ‘O Hymenaeus', some ‘Bacchus, euhoe!'
• So on the sacred bed the god and his bride meet.
• When Bacchus's gifts are set before you then,
• and you find a girl sharing your couch,
• pray to the father of feasts and nocturnal rites
• to command the wine to bring your head no harm.
• It's alright here to speak many secret things,
• with hidden words she'll feel were spoken for her alone:
• and write sweet nothings in the film of wine,
• so your girl can read them herself on the table:
• and gaze in her eyes with eyes confessing fire:
• you should often have silent words and speaking face.
• Be the first to snatch the cup that touched her lips,
• and where she drank from, that is where you drink:
• and whatever food her fingers touch, take that,
• and as you take it, touch hers with your hand.
• Let it be your wish besides to please the girl's husband:
• it'll be more useful to you to make friends.
• If you cast lots for drinking, give him the better draw:
• give him the garland you were crowned with.
• Though he's below you or beside you, let him always be served first:
• don't hesitate to second whatever he says.
• It's a safe well-trodden path to deceive in a friend's name,
• though it's a safe well-trodden path, it's a crime.
• That way the procurer procures far too much,
• and reckons to see to more than he was charged with.
• You'll be given sure limits for drinking by me:
• so pay attention to your mind and feet.
• Most of all beware of starting a drunken squabble,
• and fists far too ready for a rough fight.
• Eurytion the Centaur died, made foolish by the wine:
• food and drink are fitter for sweet jests.
• If you've a voice, sing: if your limbs are supple, dance:
• and please, with whatever you do that's pleasing.
• And though drunkenness is harmful, it's useful to pretend:
• make your sly tongue stammer with lisping sounds,
• then, whatever you say or do that seems too forward,
• it will be thought excessive wine's to blame.
• And speak well of your lady, speak well of the one she sleeps with:
• but silently in your thoughts wish the man ill.
• Then when the table's cleared, the guests are free,
• the throng will give you access to her and room.
• Join the crowd, and softly approach her,
• let fingers brush her thigh, and foot touch foot.
• Now's the time to speak to her: boorish modesty
• fly far from here: Chance and Venus help the daring.
• Not from my rules your eloquence will come:
• desire her enough, you'll be fluent yourself.
• Your's to play the lover, imitate wounds with words:
• use whatever skill you have to win her belief.
• Don't think it's hard: each think's herself desired:
• the very worst take's pleasure in her looks.
• Yet often the imitator begins to love in truth,
• often, what was once imagined comes to be.
• O, be kinder to the ones who feign it, girls:
• true love will come, out of what was false.
• Now secretly surprise her mind with flatteries,
• as clear water undermines the hanging bank.
• Never weary of praising her face, her hair,
• her elegant fingers, and her slender feet.
• Even the chaste like their beauty to be commended:
• her form to even the virgin's pleasing and dear.
• Why is losing the contest in the Phrygian woods
• a cause of shame to Juno and Pallas still?
• Juno's peacock shows his much-praised plumage:
• if you watch in silence, he'll hide his wealth again.
• Race-horses between races on the testing course,
• love it when necks are patted, manes are combed.
• Part XVI: Promise and Deceive
• Don't be shy of promising: promises entice girls:
• add any gods you like as witness to what you swear.
• Jupiter on high laughs at lovers' perjuries,
• and orders Aeolus's winds to carry them into the void.
• Jupiter used to swear by the Styx, falsely, to Juno:
• now he looks favourably on his own example.
• Gods are useful: as they're useful, let's think they're there:
• take wine and incense to the ancient altars:
• indifferent calm and it's like, apathy, don't chain them:
• live innocently: the divine is close at hand:
• pay what you owe, hold dutifully to agreements:
• commit no fraud: let your hands be free from blood.
• Delude only women, if you're wise, with impunity:
• where truth's more to be guarded against than fraud.
• Deceive deceivers: for the most part an impious tribe:
• let them fall themselves into the traps they've set.
• They say in Egypt the life-giving waters failed
• in the fields: and there were nine years of drought,
• then Thrasius came to Busiris, and said that Jove
• might be propitiated by shedding a stranger's blood.
• Busiris told him: ‘You become Jove's first victim,
• and you be the stranger to give Egypt water.'
• And Phalaris roasted impetuous Perillus's body
• in the brazen bull: the unhappy creator was first to fill his work.
• Both cases were just: for there's no fairer law
• than that the murderous maker should perish by his art.
• As liars by liars are rightfully deceived,
• wounded by their own example, let women grieve.
• Part XVII: Tears, Kisses, and Take the Lead
• And tears help: tears will move a stone:
• let her see your damp cheeks if you can.
• If tears (they don't always come at the right time)
• fail you, touch your eyes with a wet hand.
• What wise man doesn't mingle tears with kisses?
• Though she might not give, take what isn't given.
• Perhaps she'll struggle, and then say ‘you're wicked':
• struggling she still wants, herself, to be conquered.
• Only, take care her lips aren't bruised by snatching,
• and that she can't complain that you were harsh.
• Who takes a kiss, and doesn't take the rest,
• deserves to lose all that were granted too.
• How much short of your wish are you after that kiss?
• Ah me, that was boorishness stopped you not modesty.
• Though you call it force: it's force that pleases girls: what delights
• is often to have given what they wanted, against their will.
• She who is taken in love's sudden onslaught
• is pleased, and finds wickedness is a tribute.
• And she who might have been forced, and escapes unscathed,
• will be saddened, though her face pretends delight.
• Phoebe was taken by force: force was offered her sister:
• and both, when raped, were pleased with those who raped them.
• Though the tale's known, it's still worth repeating,
• how the girl of Scyros mated Achilles the hero.
• Now the lovely goddess had given her fatal bribe
• to defeat the other two beneath Ida's slopes:
• now a daughter-in-law had come to Priam
• from an enemy land: a Greek wife in Trojan walls:
• all swore the prescribed oath to the injured husband:
• now one man's grief became a nation's cause.
• Shamefully, though he gave way to a mother's prayer,
• Achilles hid his manhood in women's clothes.
• What's this, Aeacides? Spinning's not your work:
• your search for fame's through Pallas's other arts.
• Why the basket? Your arm's meant to bear a shield:
• why does the hand that will slay Hector hold the yarn?
• Throw away the spindle wound laboriously with thread!
• The spear from Pelion's to be brandished by this hand.
• By chance a royal virgin shared the room:
• through her rape she learned he was a man.
• That she was truly won by force, we must think:
• but she still wanted to be won by force.
• She often cried: ‘Stop!' afterwards, when Achilles hurried on:
• now he'd taken up stronger weapons than the distaff.
• Where's that force now? Why do you restrain
• the perpetrator of your rape, Deidamia?
• No doubt as there's a sort of shame in having started first,
• so it's pleasant to have what someone else has started.
• Ah! The youth has too much faith in his own beauty,
• if he waits until she asks him first.
• The man must approach first: speak the words of entreaty:
• she courteously receives his flattering prayers.
• To win her, ask her: she only wants to be asked:
• give her the cause and the beginning of your longing.
• Jupiter went as a suppliant to the heroines of old:
• no woman ever seduced great Jupiter.
• If you find she disdains the advent of your prayerful sighs,
• leave off what you've begun, retrace your steps.
• What shuns them, they desire the more: they hate what's there:
• remove her loathing by pursuing less.
• The hoped-for love should not always be declared:
• introduce desire hidden in the name of friendship.
• I've seen the most severe of women fooled this way:
• he who once was a worshipper, became a lover.
• Part XVIII: Be Pale: Be Wary of Your Friends
• A pale colour would shame a sailor on the ocean wave,
• who's blackened by the rays of the sun:
• and shame the farmer who turns the soil with curved plough
• and heavy harrow, underneath the heavens.
• And you who seek the athlete's crown, you too
• would be ashamed if all your body was white.
• Let all lovers be pale: it's the colour fitting for love:
• it suits, though fools have thought it of no value.
• Orion wandered pale, for Side, in the woods,
• Daphnis was pale for his reluctant Naiad.
• Let your leanness show your heart: don't think it a shame
• to slip a cape over your shining hair:
• Let youthful limbs be worn away by sleepless nights
• and care, and the grief of a great love.
• To gain your desire, be miserable,
• and those who see you can say ‘You're in love.'
• Should I lament, warn you perhaps that right and wrong
• are confused by all? Friendship and loyalty empty words.
• Ah me, it's not safe to praise your love to a friend:
• if he believes your praise, he'll steal her himself.
• But Patroclus never disgraced Achilles's bed:
• and how modest Phaedra was with Pirithous.
• Pylades loved Hermione, just as Phoebus Pallas,
• or as Castor was twin to you Pollux.
• Who hopes for that, hopes for apple-bearing tamarisks,
• and looks for honey in the middle of the stream.
• All delight in what's shameful: care only for their pleasures,
• and are pleased too when trouble comes to others.
• Ah it's a crime! It's not their rivals that lovers fear:
• flee those you think are friends, and you'll be safe.
• Beware of brothers, relatives, and dear friends:
• that crowd offers you true cause for fear.
• Part XIX: Be Flexible
• I've done, but there's diversity in women's
• hearts: a thousand minds require a thousand methods.
• One soil doesn't bear all crops: vines here
• are good, olives there: this teems with healthy wheat.
• There are as many manners of heart as kinds of face:
• a wise man will adapt to many forms,
• and like Proteus now, melt into the smooth waters,
• now be a tree, now a lion, now a bristling boar.
• These fish are speared, those caught on a hook:
• others trawled in billowing nets with straining ropes.
• One mode won't suit you for every age-group:
• the older hinds spot a trap from further off.
• If the simple find you cunning, and the modest crude,
• the poor things will straightaway mistrust themselves.
• So it happens that she who fears to trust an honest man,
• falls to the embrace of some low rascal.
• Part of my task is left: part of the labour's done.
• Moor my boat here to the anchor-chains.

End of Book I

Contents of Book I

• Part I: His Task.
• Part II: How to Find Her.
• Part III: Search while you're out Walking.
• Part IV: Or at the Theatre.
• Part V: Or at the Races, or the Circus.
• Part VI: Triumphs are Good too!
• Part VII: There's always the Dinner-Table.
• Part VIII: And Finally There's the Beach.
• Part IX: How To Win Her.
• Part X: First Secure the Maid.
• Part XI: Don't Forget Her Birthday!
• Part XII: Write and Make Promises.
• Part XIII: Be Where She Is.
• Part XIV: Look Presentable.
• Part XV: At Dinner Be Bold.
• Part XVI: Promise and Deceive.
• Part XVII: Tears, Kisses, and Take the Lead.
• Part XVIII: Be Pale: Be Wary of Your Friends.
• Part XIX: Be Flexible.

English translation by A. S. Kline, © 2001.