Amores

36. Cool shades and beds of down could only please;
37. When a commanding beauty rais'd my mind,
38. I left all little trifling thoughts behind,
39. And to her service all my heart resign'd:
40. Since, like an active soldier, have I spent
41. My time in toils of war, in beauty's tent:
42. And for so sweet a pay all dangers underwent.
43. You see, my Atticus, by what I prove,
44. Who would not live in idleness-must love.

Poem 10, in which the poet complains that his mistress has asked him for money, is not here translated.

1. Nape, who know'st so well to set the hair,
2. And all the fashions of the modish fair,
3. Like thee no lady's woman in the town
4. Can forward an intrigue, or pin a gown;
5. No maid than thee can boast a quicker eye,
6. Nor sooner the sour husband's coming spy.
7. Here, Nape, take this billet-doux, and bear
8. My soul's soft wishes to the absent fair.
9. If I can guess, thy heart is not of flint,
10. Nor is there the least vein of iron in't;
11. I something in thy looks and manners see
12. Above the rudeness of thy low degree;
13. A softer turn, to pity more inclined,
14. Than vulgar souls, a more complacent mind;
15. Thou feel'st, if I can guess, an equal flame,
16. And thine and my distemper is the same.
17. If how I do, she asks, do thou reply,
18. For the dear night, and night's dear joys, I die.
19. Tell her the letter will the rest explain,
20. And does my soul, and all its hopes contain.
21. But time, while I am speaking, flies: be sure
22. To give the billet in a leisure hour:
23. Don't be content with her imperfect view,
24. But make her, when she has it, read it through.
25. I charge thee, as she reads, observe her eyes,
26. Catch, if thou canst, her gentle looks and sighs;
27. As these are sure presages of my joy,
28. So frowns and low'rs my flattering hopes destroy.
29. Pray her, when she has read it, to indite
30. An answer, and a long epistle write.
31. I hate a billet, where at once I view
32. A page all empty, but a line or two.
33. Let her without a margin fill it up,
34. And crowd it from the bottom to the top.
35. But why should I her pretty fingers tire?
36. A word's enough, and all that I desire.
37. Ah, Nape, let her only bid me come;
38. The page is large, which for that word has room.
39. Her letter, like a conqu'ror's, shall be bound
40. With bays, for it with conquests shall be crown'd.

1. Ah, pity me, my friends! the cruel fair
2. Will neither read my just complaint, nor hear.
3. The billet-doux I sent her she return'd,
4. And e'en to ope the tender letter scorn'd
5. Ill was the omen, for the slave I sent
6. Trip'd at the sill as out of doors he went.
7. If e'er you on an errand go for me,
8. More careful, sirrah! how you stumble, be;
9. Step soberly, and warily along;
10. The end's ne'er right if the beginning's wrong.
11. Sinee thus in vain her pity I implore,
12. I'll ne'er to tablets trust my passion more;
13. Nor with my wax for death my warrant seal;
14. Worse than her scorn, what torture can I feel?
15. From combs of Cosica the wax was ta'en,
16. The latent poison was the lover's bane.
17. Bees there from venom'd flow'rs their honey suck,
18. And surely to my wax that venom stuck.
19. Chance on the seal did my misfortune paint,
20. And show'd my doom by the vermilion teint.
21. Curse on the instruments of my disgrace !
22. May you lie rotting in some filthy place;
23. By carts run o'er may you to bits be torn,
24. And your mishap revenge Corinna's scorn !
25. The man that first to smooth your surface toil'd,
26. The wooden work with hands impure defil'd;
27. Gibbets and racks should of the wood be made,
28. And the rough tools of all the murd'ring trade.
29. Bats roosted in its branches as it grew,
30. And birds of prey for shelter thither flew:
31. The vulture, and all kind of rav'nous fowl,
32. There hatch their young, and there the om'nous owl.
33. How mad to use such tablets must I be?
34. Curst and ill fated, as their parent tree!
35. Were these fit things soft sentiments to bear,
36. And to a lady tell a lover's care?
37. Lawyers, on you, might horrid jargon write,
38. With sound the ear, with sense the soul to flight.
39. Well might your plain the wicked writings bear
40. Where the rich miser robs the ruin'd heir.
41. When I first purchas'd you, I feared no less,
42. Your numbers even made me doubt success:
43. May you by worms be in old age devour'd,
44. And by all mortals as by me abhor'd.

1. Aurora, rising from old Tithon's bed,
2. Does o'er the eastern skies her roses spread:
3. Stay, beauteous morn, awhile thy chariot stay,
4. Awhile with lagging wheels retard the day.
5. So may young birds, as often as the spring
6. Renews the year, o'er Memnon's ashes sing.
7. Now I lie folded in Corinna's arms,
8. And all her soul is mine, and all her charms;
9. I now am to her panting bosom press'd,
10. And now, if ever lover was, am bless'd.
11. As yet sweet sleep sits heavy on our eyes,
12. And warbling birds forbid, as yet to rise.
13. Stay, beauteous morning, for to love-sick maids
14. And youths, how grateful are these dusky shades!
15. All stay, and do not, from the blushing east,
16. With dawning glories break our balmy rest.
17. When night's black mantle does those glories hide,