Amores

Ovid

Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John, et al., translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. Consult her pleasure, and her will obey,
  2. To favour that's the sure, the ready way:
  3. Without it, how unhappy wilt thou be!
  4. Life is without it of no use to thee.
  5. Thou'rt beautiful, and mayst thy prime enjoy,
  6. And well thy beauty and thy youth employ.
  7. Study to serve thy gentle mistress well,
  8. And merit her good graces by thy zeal;
  9. Watch as thou wilt, the trouble thou mayst spare,
  10. She'll easily deceive thy utmost care.
  11. When two fond lovers are agreed to meet,
  12. Canst thou their well-concerted plot defeat?
  13. The ways of kindness thou shouldst rather use;
  14. By being civil thou wilt nothing lose;
  15. And when an opportunity is fail,
  16. For thy own sake be friendly to our pray'r.
  17. A friend be to thy lady, not a guard,
  18. And we, with bounteous hand, thy friendship will reward.
  1. Vice by my verse I never will defend,
  2. Nor by false arms to fence my own pretend.
  3. Frankly my failings I with shame confess;
  4. To hide my errors would not make them less.
  5. My faults, whate'er I suffer by't, I own,
  6. That others, if they please, those faults may shun
  7. I hate myself, my follies, and would fain
  8. Be, were it in my pow'r, another man.
  9. How difficult it is, ye righteous Gods,
  10. Against our wills to bear such heavy loads.
  11. I have not strength to guard myself from ill,
  12. And, as I wish, to rule my wicked will.
  13. I'm hurry'd on, as by the boistrous sea
  14. The driving bark is swiftly borne away.
  15. No certain form inflames my am'rous breast,
  16. All beauty is alike to me the best;
  17. A hundred causes kindle my desires,
  18. And love ne'er wants a torch to light my fires.
  19. When on the earth the modest virgin looks,
  20. That very modesty of hers provokes;
  21. And if I chance to meet a forward fair,
  22. I'm taken with her frank and easy air:
  23. I figure to myself a thousand charms,
  24. A thousand raptures in her wanton arms.
  25. If, like the damsels of the Sabine race,
  26. She's rude, I look upon it as grimace;
  27. That sullen as she seems at first, 'tis art,
  28. That I the more may prize the conquest or her heart.
  29. New joys, if she's a wit, I hope to find;
  30. And with her body, to possess her mind:
  31. If foolish, I in that can see no harm,
  32. And in her very folly find a charm.
  33. I know a maid so very fond, and dull,
  34. To me she thinks Callimachus a fool.
  35. I soon am pleas'd with one that's pleas'd with me,
  36. Alike we in our taste and wish agree:
  37. But if the fair my verses don't approve,
  38. I bragging tell her, she will like my love;
  39. If with her tongue, or with her heel she's brisk,
  40. Her prattle pleases, and her gamesome frisk;
  41. But if she's heavy, I suppose at night
  42. She'll change, and prove, as I would have her, light,