§1Cum ego ántehac te amávi et mi amícam esse crévi, §2mea Gýmnasium, et mátrem tuám, tum id mihi hódie §3apéruistis, tu átque haec: sorór si mea ésses, §4qui mágis potuerítis mihi honórem ire habitum, §5néscio, nisi, ut meus est animus, fieri non posse arbitror; §6íta omnibus relictis rebus mihi frequentem operam dedistis.
As I have loved you before this and believed you to be my friend, my Gymnasium, and also your mother, so today you both have made this clear to me, you and this woman: if you were my sister, how you could have gone about showing me greater honor, I do not know, except that, in my mind, I think it would have been impossible; so completely, leaving all other things aside, have you given me your constant attention.
§7éo ego vos amo ét eo á me magnam iniistis gratiam.
Therefore I love you, and therefore you have earned great gratitude from me.
§8Pol isto quidem nos pretio facile est frequentare §9tibi utilisque habere: §10ita in prándio nos lepide ác nitide §11accépisti apúd te, ut sempér meminerímus.
By Pollux, at that price indeed it is easy for us to attend on you and to be useful to you: so delightfully and handsomely did you receive us at your house for luncheon, that we shall always remember it.
With a willing mind it was done, and it shall be done by me, to seek out those things which I think you wish.
§14Quód ille dixit, quí secundo vénto vectus ést tranquilló mari, §15véntum gaudeo—écastor ad téd, ita hodie híc acceptaé sumus §16suávibus modis, §17néc nisi disciplina apud te fuit quicquam ibi quin mihi placeret.
As that man said, who was carried by a favorable wind on a calm sea, "I am glad to have come"—by Castor, to your house, so delightfully have we been received here today in sweet ways, nor was there anything at your house unless conducted with such discipline that it did not please me.
§18Quid ita, amabo?
Why so, please?
§18bRaro nimium dabat quod biberem, id merum infuscabat.
She gave me something to drink far too rarely, and she diluted the unmixed wine.
§19_20Amábo, hicine ístud decét?
Please, is that proper here?
It is both humanly and divinely right: no stranger is here.
Deservedly do I love you, because you cherish me and make much of me.
§22bDecet pol, mea Selenium, §23hunc ésse ordiném benevoléntis intér se §24béneque amicitia útier, §25ubi istás videas summó genere natás, summatis mátronas, §26ut amícitiam colunt átque ut eam iunctám bene habent intér se.
Indeed it is fitting, my Selenium, that this class of people who wish each other well should be thus, and should make good use of friendship, when you see those women born of the highest rank, the high-class matrons, how they cultivate friendship and how well they keep it joined among themselves.
If we were to do that very same thing, if we were to imitate the same, even so we could scarcely live under the greatest envy.
suárum opum nos vólunt esse indigéntes.
They want us to be in need of their resources.
§29_30nostrá copiá nil volúnt nos potésse §31suíque omniúm rerum nós indigére, §32út sibi simus súpplices.
They want us to be able to do nothing by our own means, and they want us to stand in need of them for all things, so that we may be suppliants to them.
§33éas si ádeas, abitum quam aditum malis, ita nostro ordini §34palám blandiúntur, clam, si óccasio usquam est, §35aquám frigidám subdolé suffúndunt.
If you should approach them, you would prefer departure to approach; so much do they, towards our class, openly flatter us, but secretly, if there is any opportunity, craftily pour cold water on us.
They declare that we are accustomed to be with their husbands, they say we are their rivals, and they go about to ruin us.
§38quia nós libertinaé sumus, et ego ét tua mater, ámbae §39meretrices fuimus: illa te, ego hanc mihi educavi §40ex patribus conventiciis.
Because we are freedwomen, both I and your mother; we both were courtesans: she brought you up, and I brought this girl up for myself, from chance fathers.
neque ego hanc superbiai §41causa pepuli ad meretricium quaestum, nisi ut ne ésurirem.
And I did not push her to the courtesan's trade out of pride, but only so that I might not starve.
§42At satius fuerat eam viro dare nuptum potius.
But it would have been better rather to give her in marriage to a husband.
§42bHeia,
Ha!
§43haec quidem ecastor cottidie viro núbit, nupsitque hodie, §44nubet mox noctu: numquam ego hanc viduam cubare sivi.
By Castor, she indeed marries a husband every day; she married today, and she will marry soon tonight: I have never allowed her to sleep single.
§45nam si haec non nubat, lugubri fame familia pereat.
For if she were not to marry, the household would perish of wretched hunger.
§46Necesse est, quo tu me modo voles esse, ita esse, mater.
It is necessary, mother, that I be in whatever way you wish me to be.
§47Ecastor haud me paenitet, si ut dicis ita futura es.
By Castor, I do not regret it at all, if you are going to be as you say.
§48nam si quidem ita eris ut volo, numquam senecta fies §49semperque istam quam nunc habes aetatulam optinebis, §50multisque damno et mihi lucro siné meo saepe eris sumptu.
For if indeed you will be as I wish, you will never grow old, and you will always keep that youthful age which you now have, and you will often be a loss to many and a gain to me, without any expense of my own.
§51Di faxint.
May the gods grant it.
§51bSine opera tua di horunc nil facere possunt.
Without your own effort, the gods can do nothing of these things.
§52Equidem hercle addam operam sedulo; sed tu aufer istaec verba.
Indeed, by Hercules, I will apply effort diligently; but you, put away those words.
My darling, my Selenium, I have never seen you more sad.
quid, cedo, te obsecro tam abhorret hilaritudo?
Tell me, I pray, why does cheerfulness shrink from you so much?
Nor are you as neatly dressed as you usually are (look at this, please, how deeply she drew a sigh!), and you are pale.
eloquere utrumque nobis, §57et quid tibi est et quid velis nostram operam, ut nos sciamus.
Tell both to us, both what is the matter with you and how you wish our help, so that we may know.
§58noli, obsecro, lacrumis tuis mi exercitum imperare.
Do not, I pray, with your tears command an army against me.
§59Méd excrucio, mea Gymnasium: male mihi est, male maceror; §60doleo ab animo, doleo ab oculis, doleo ab aegritudine.
I torment myself, my Gymnasium: it is bad for me, I am wretchedly distressed; I suffer in my mind, I suffer in my eyes, I suffer from sickness.
§61quid dicam, nisi stultitia mea me in maerorem rapi?
What can I say, except that by my own folly I am dragged into sorrow?
§62Indidem unde oritur facito ut facias stultitiam sepelibilem.
Make sure that, right where it arises, you make that folly fit for burial.