- Source
- Ovid. P. Ovidius Naso, Volume 1: Amores, Epistulae, Medicamina faciei femineae, Ars amatoria, Remedia amoris. Ehwald, Rudolf; Merkel, Rudolph; editors. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1907.
- Translation
- AI-generated (gemini-3.5-flash) — machine translation; may contain errors
- Languages
- 日本語 · English · 简体中文 · 한국어
- CTS URN
- urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi001.humanitext-lat2:1.ep.1-1.ep.4
- Generated
- Humanitext Reader · reader.humanitext.ai · 2026-10-27
The poet announces that his collection *Amores* has been reduced from five books to three, humorously suggesting that even if the reading brings no pleasure, the reader's suffering will at least be shorter.
Qui modo Nasonis fueramus1 quinque libelli,
We who just now had been five little books of Naso,
Tres sumus; hoc illi2 praetulit auctor opus.
are now three; the author preferred this work to that one.
Ut3 iam nulla tibi nos sit legisse voluptas,
Even if reading us should now be no pleasure for you,
At levior demptis poena duobus4 erit.
yet the pain will be lighter with two books removed.
- 1.ep.1fueramus
First-person plural pluperfect indicative of sum. It emphasizes that what "had been" the case in the past is no longer true in the present.
- 1.ep.2illi
Dative singular of the demonstrative pronoun ille, serving as the indirect object of praetulit (perfect of praefero, "to prefer [something, acc.] to [something, dat.]"). It refers to the previous five-book edition.
- 1.ep.3Ut
Introducing a concessive clause ("even if", "although") with the subjunctive sit in line 3.
- 1.ep.4demptis... duobus
An ablative absolute construction consisting of demptis (perfect passive participle of demo, "to remove") and duobus (ablative of duo, "two"), meaning "with two books having been removed."