Part 24 (2/2)
She though never she bide with one Catullus contented, 135 Yet will I bear with the rare thefts of my dame the discreet, Lest over-irk I give which still of fools is the fas.h.i.+on.
Often did Juno eke Queen of the Heavenly host Boil wi' the rabidest rage at dire default of a husband Learning the manifold thefts of her omnivolent Jove, 140 Yet with the G.o.ds mankind 'tis nowise righteous to liken, * * * *
Rid me of graceless task fit for a tremulous sire.
Yet was she never to me by hand paternal committed Whenas she came to my house reeking a.s.syrian scents; Nay, in the darkness of night her furtive favours she deigned me, 145 Self-willed taking herself from very mate's very breast.
Wherefore I hold it enough since given to us and us only Boon of that day with Stone whiter than wont she denotes.
This to thee--all that I can--this offering couched in verses (Allius!) as my return give I for service galore; 150 So wi' the seabriny rust your name may never be sullied This day and that nor yet other and other again.
Hereto add may the G.o.ds all good gifts, which Themis erewhiles Wont on the pious of old from her full store to bestow: Blest be the times of the twain, thyself and she who thy life is, 155 Also the home wherein dallied we, no less the Dame, Anser to boot who first of mortals brought us together, Whence from beginning all good Fortunes that blest us were born.
Lastly than every else one dearer than self and far dearer, Light of my life who alive living to me can endear. 160
That when, opprest by fortune and in grievous case, thou didst send me this epistle o'erwrit with tears, that I might bear up s.h.i.+pwrecked thee tossed by the foaming waves of the sea, and restore thee from the threshold of death; thou whom neither sacred Venus suffers to repose in soft slumber, desolate on a a lonely couch, nor do the Muses divert with the sweet song of ancient poets, whilst thy anxious mind keeps vigil:--this is grateful to me, since thou dost call me thy friend, and dost seek hither the gifts of the Muses and of Venus. But that my troubles may not be unknown to thee, O Manius, nor thou deem I shun the office of host, hear how I am whelmed in the waves of that same fortune, nor further seek joyful gifts from a wretched one. In that time when the white vestment was first handed to me, and my florid age was pa.s.sing in jocund spring, much did I sport enow: nor was the G.o.ddess unknown to us who mixes bitter-sweet with our cares. But my brother's death plunged all this pursuit into mourning. O brother, taken from my unhappy self; thou by thy dying hast broken my ease, O brother; all our house is buried with thee; with thee have perished the whole of our joys, which thy sweet love nourished in thy lifetime. Thou lost, I have dismissed wholly from mind these studies and every delight of mind.
Wherefore, as to what thou writest, ”'Tis shameful for Catullus to be at Verona, for there anyone of utmost note must chafe his frigid limbs on a desolate couch;” that, Manius, is not shameful; rather 'tis a pity.
Therefore, do thou forgive, if what grief has s.n.a.t.c.hed from me, these gifts, I do not bestow on thee, because I am unable. For, that there is no great store of writings with me arises from this, that we live at Rome: there is my home, there is my hall, thither my time is pa.s.sed; hither but one of my book-cases follows me. As 'tis thus, I would not that thou deem we act so from ill-will or from a mind not sufficiently ingenuous, that ample store is not forthcoming to either of thy desires: both would I grant, had I the wherewithal. Nor can I conceal, G.o.ddesses, in what way Allius has aided me, or with how many good offices he has a.s.sisted me; nor shall fleeting time with its forgetful centuries cover with night's blindness this care of his. But I tell it to you, and do ye declare it to many thousands, and make this paper, grown old, speak of it * * * * And let him be more and more noted when dead, nor let the spider aloft, weaving her thin-drawn web, carry on her work over the neglected name of Allius. For you know what anxiety of mind wily Amathusia gave me, and in what manner she overthrew me, when I was burning like the Trinacrian rocks, or the Malian fount in Oetaean Thermopylae; nor did my piteous eyes cease to dissolve with continual weeping, nor my cheeks with sad showers to be bedewed. As the pellucid stream gushes forth from the moss-grown rock on the aerial crest of the mountain, which when it has rolled headlong p.r.o.ne down the valley, softly wends its way through the midst of the populous parts, sweet solace to the wayfarer sweating with weariness, when the oppressive heat cracks the burnt-up fields agape: or, as to sailors tempest-tossed in black whirlpool, there cometh a favourable and a gently-moving breeze, Pollux having been prayed anon, and Castor alike implored: of such kind was Manius' help to us. He with a wider limit laid open my closed field; he gave us a home and its mistress, on whom we both might exercise our loves in common. Thither with gracious gait my bright-hued G.o.ddess betook herself, and pressed her s.h.i.+ning sole on the worn threshold with creaking of sandal; as once came Laodamia, flaming with love for her consort, to the home of Protesilaus,--a beginning of naught!
for not yet with sacred blood had a victim made propitiate the lords of the heavens. May nothing please me so greatly, Rhamnusian virgin, that I should act thus heedlessly against the will of those lords! How the thirsty altar craves for sacrificial blood Laodamia was taught by the loss of her husband, being compelled to abandon the neck of her new spouse when one winter was past, before another winter had come, in whose long nights she might so glut her greedy love, that she could have lived despite her broken marriage-yoke, which the Parcae knew would not be long distant, if her husband as soldier should fare to the Ilian walls. For by Helena's rape Troy had begun to put the Argive Chiefs in the field; Troy accurst, the common grave of Asia and of Europe, Troy, the sad ashes of heroes and of every n.o.ble deed, that also lamentably brought death to our brother. O brother taken from unhappy me! O jocund light taken from thy unhappy brother! in thy one grave lies all our house, in thy one grave have perished all our joys, which thy sweet love did nurture during life. Whom now is laid so far away, not amongst familiar tombs nor near the ashes of his kindred, but obscene Troy, malign Troy, an alien earth, holds thee entombed in its remote soil. Thither, 'tis said, hastening together from all parts, the Grecian manhood forsook their hearths and homes, lest Paris enjoy his abducted trollop with freedom and leisure in a peaceful bed. Such then was thy case, loveliest Laodamia, to be bereft of husband sweeter than life, and than soul; thou being sucked in so great a whirlpool of love, its eddy submerged thee in its steep abyss, like (so folk say) to the Graian gulph near Pheneus of Cyllene with its fat swamp's soil drained and dried, which aforetime the falsely-born Amphitryoniades dared to hew through the marrow of cleft mountains, at the time when he smote down the Stymphalian monsters with sure shafts by the command of his inferior lord, so that the heavenly portal might be pressed by a greater number of deities, nor Hebe longer remain in her virginity. But deeper than that abyss was thy deep love which taught [thy husband] to bear his lady's forceful yoke. For not so dear to the spent age of the grandsire is the late born grandchild an only daughter rears, who, long-wished-for, at length inherits the ancestral wealth, his name duly set down in the attested tablets; and casting afar the impious hopes of the baffled next-of-kin, scares away the vulture from the whitened head; nor so much does any dove-mate rejoice in her snow-white consort (though, 'tis averred, more shameless than most in continually plucking kisses with nibbling beak) as thou dost, though woman is especially inconstant. But thou alone didst surpa.s.s the great frenzies of these, when thou wast once united to thy yellow-haired husband. Worthy to yield to whom in naught or in little, my light brought herself to my bosom, round whom Cupid, often running hither thither, gleamed l.u.s.trous-white in saffron-tinted tunic. Still although she is not content with Catullus alone, we will suffer the rare frailties of our coy lady, lest we may be too greatly unbearable, after the manner of fools. Often even Juno, greatest of heaven-dwellers, boiled with flaring wrath at her husband's default, wotting the host of frailties of all-wishful Jove. Yet 'tis not meet to match men with the G.o.ds, * * * * bear up the ungrateful burden of a tremulous parent. Yet she was not handed to me by a father's right hand when she came to my house fragrant with a.s.syrian odour, but she gave me her stealthy favours in the mute night, withdrawing of her own will from the bosom of her spouse. Wherefore that is enough if to us alone she gives that day which she marks with a whiter stone. This gift to thee, all that I can, of verse completed, is requital, Allius, for many offices, so that this day and that, and other and other of days may not tarnish your name with scabrous rust. Hither may the G.o.ds add gifts full many, which Themis aforetimes was wont to bear to the pious of old. May ye be happy, both thou and thy life's-love together, and thy home in which we have sported, and its mistress, and Anser who in the beginning brought thee to us, from whom all my good fortunes were first born, and lastly she whose very self is dearer to me than all these,--my light, whom living, 'tis sweet to me to live.
LXVIIII.
Noli admirari, quare tibi femina nulla, Rufe, velit tenerum supposuisse femur, Non si illam rarae labefactes munere vestis Aut perluciduli deliciis lapidis.
Laedit te quaedam mala fabula, qua tibi fertur 5 Valle sub alarum trux habitare caper.
Hunc metuunt omnes. neque mirum: nam mala valdest Bestia, nec quic.u.m bella puella cubet.
Quare aut crudelem nasorum interfice pestem, Aut admirari desine cur fugiunt. 10
LXVIIII.
TO RUFUS THE FETID.
Wonder not blatantly why no woman shall ever be willing (Rufus!) her tender thigh under thyself to bestow, Not an thou tempt her full by bribes of the rarest garments, Or by the dear delights gems the pellucidest deal.
Harms thee an ugly tale wherein of thee is recorded 5 Horrible stench of the goat under thine arm-pits be lodged.
All are in dread thereof; nor wonder this, for 'tis evil Beastie, nor damsel fair ever thereto shall succ.u.mb.
So do thou either kill that cruel pest o' their noses, Or at their reason of flight blatantly wondering cease. 10
Be unwilling to wonder wherefore no woman, O Rufus, is wishful to place her tender thigh 'neath thee, not even if thou dost tempt her by the gift of a rare robe or by the delights of a crystal-clear gem. A certain ill tale injures thee, that thou bearest housed in the valley of thine armpits a grim goat. Hence everyone's fear. Nor be marvel: for 'tis an exceeding ill beast, with whom no fair girl will sleep. Wherefore, either murder that cruel plague of their noses, or cease to marvel why they fly?
LXX.
Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle Quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat.
Dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.
LXX.
ON WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY.
Never, my woman oft says, with any of men will she mate be, Save wi' my own very self, ask her though Jupiter deign!
Says she: but womanly words that are spoken to desireful lover Ought to be written on wind or upon water that runs.
No one, saith my lady, would she rather wed than myself, not even if Jupiter's self crave her. Thus she saith! but what a woman tells an ardent amourist ought fitly to be graven on the breezes and in running waters.
LXXI.
Siquoi iure bono sacer alarum obst.i.tit hircus, Aut siquem merito tarda podagra secat, Aemulus iste tuos, qui vostrum exercet amorem, Mirificost fato nactus utrumque malum, Nam quotiens futuit, totiens ulciscitur ambos: 5 Illam adfligit odore, ipse perit podagra.
LXXI.
TO VERRO.
An of a goat-stink d.a.m.ned from armpits fusty one suffer, Or if a crippling gout worthily any one rack, 'Tis that rival o' thine who lief in loves of you meddles, And, by a wondrous fate, gains him the twain of such ills.
For that, oft as he ----, so oft that penance be two-fold; 5 Stifles her stench of goat, he too is kilt by his gout.
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