Monday, November 28, 2011

Amores 1.11 and 1.12 by Ovid

XI
Colligere incertos et in ordine ponere crines
docta neque ancillas inter habenda Nape,
inque ministeriis furtivae cognita noctis
utilis et dandis ingeniosa notis
11
Learned in collecting and placing in rows
the uncertains locks of hair and not to be held
among the serving girls, Nape, and proven in
the useful ministerings of the furtive night and
ingenious at giving notices
saepe venire ad me dubitantem hortata Corinnam, 5
saepe laboranti fida reperta mihi—
accipe et ad dominam peraratas mane tabellas
perfer et obstantes sedula pelle moras!
Often exhorting the doubting Corinna to
come to me, often having been found faithful to
me, laboring--accept and carry to your mistress
these inscribed tablets this morning and carefully
banish any delays in the way !
nec silicum venae nec durum in pectore ferrum,
nec tibi simplicitas ordine maior adest. 10
credibile est et te sensisse Cupidinis arcus—
in me militiae signa tuere tuae!
There is not harsh iron nor veins of stone in
your heart, nor is there for you simplicity
greater than your place. It is believable that you
also have felt the bow of Cupid -- protect the
banners of your fight in me!
si quaeret quid agam, spe noctis vivere dices;
cetera fert blanda cera notata manu.
Dum loquor, hora fugit. vacuae bene redde tabellas, 15
verum continuo fac tamen illa legat.
If she seeks what I am doing, you will say that
I live by hope for the night; the notated wax
carries the rest in my pretty hand. While I
speak, the hour flies. Hand over the tablets
well to an unocuppied girl; nevertheless
 make it that she immediately reads them.
adspicias oculos mando frontemque legentis;
et tacito vultu scire futura licet.
nec mora, perlectis rescribat multa, iubeto;
odi, cum late splendida cera vacat. 20
I command that you inspect her eyes, reading
her brow; and it is permitted to know the future
from a silent face. Without delay, with it all
having been read, command her that she write
back many things; I hate it when the broad,
shining wax is empty.
conprimat ordinibus versus, oculosque moretur
margine in extremo littera rasa meos.
Quid digitos opus est graphio lassare tenendo?
hoc habeat scriptum tota tabella 'veni!'
The verse squeezes together in rows, and
scratched letters are demand attendtion from
my eyes in the extreme edge. Is it necessary to
tire out her fingers by holding the stylus? Let the
writing on the whole tablet be this: "Come!"
non ego victrices lauro redimire tabellas 25
nec Veneris media ponere in aede morer.
subscribam: 'VENERI FIDAS SIBI NASO MINISTRAS
DEDICAT, AT NUPER VILE FUISTIS ACER.'
I would not delay to encircle the conquering
tablets with laurel nor to place them in the
middle of the temple of Venus.
I will have written: "To Venus Naso dedicates
those attendants faithful to him, but
lately you were ordinary maplewood."
XII
Flete meos casus—tristes rediere tabellae
infelix hodie littera posse negat.
omina sunt aliquid; modo cum discedere vellet,
ad limen digitos restitit icta Nape.
12
Cry for my cause - the sad tablets returned
the unlucky letters deny that she can [meet]
today. Omens are really something; just when
she wished to leave, Nape paused her toes,
having been struck on the threshhold.
missa foras iterum limen transire memento 5
cautius atque alte sobria ferre pedem!
Ite hinc, difficiles, funebria ligna, tabellae,
tuque, negaturis cera referta notis!—
Having been sent out of doors again, remember
to cautiously cross the threshhold and to carry
your foot to a sober height! Go from here,
pesky tablets, funereal firewood, and you,
wax crammed with negatory notes!-
quam, puto, de longae collectam flore cicutae
melle sub infami Corsica misit apis. 10
at tamquam minio penitus medicata rubebas—
ille color vere sanguinolentus erat.
Which wax, I think, was collected from the
flower of the long poison hemlock and
a Corsican bee sent here beneath its
infamous honey. But just as you were red,
as if dyed vermillion on the inside--that color
was truly bloody.

proiectae triviis iaceatis, inutile lignum,
vosque rotae frangat praetereuntis onus!
illum etiam, qui vos ex arbore vertit in usum, 15
convincam puras non habuisse manus.
Let you lie down at the point of three roads,
useless firewood, and let the weight of a
passing wheel break you! Even that man who
changed you from a tree into something useful,
I will prove that he did not have pure hands.
praebuit illa arbor misero suspendia collo,
carnifici diras praebuit illa cruces;
illa dedit turpes raucis bubonibus umbras,
vulturis in ramis et strigis ova tulit. 20
That tree provided for a miserable neck a
gallows; it provided dark crosses for the
hangman. That tree gave shameful shadow to
hoarse owls, and it carried in its branches the
eggs of a vulture and a screech owl.
his ego commisi nostros insanus amores
molliaque ad dominam verba ferenda dedi?
aptius hae capiant vadimonia garrula cerae,
quas aliquis duro cognitor ore legat;
To these did I insanely entrust my loves and
give them sweet words to be carried to my
mistress? More apt that these waxes sieze the
wordy bail promises, which any attorney reads
in a harsh voice;
inter ephemeridas melius tabulasque iacerent, 25
in quibus absumptas fleret avarus opes.
Ergo ego vos rebus duplices pro nomine sensi.
auspicii numerus non erat ipse boni.
better that they lie among the daily newspapers,
in which a greedy man might have weeped for
his exhausted riches. Therefore I have felt you
two-faced in businesses for your name.
The number itself was not of a good omen.
quid precer iratus, nisi vos cariosa senectus
rodat, et inmundo cera sit alba situ? 30
I am angry, and what should I pray, except
that dayed age might gnaw at you, and the white
wax might be in a filthy situation?
sdfsdfs

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