I have decided to do two things at once now: I shall relate both the plot and my love affair.
§3non ego item facio ut alios in comoediis §4vi vidi amoris facere, qui aut nocti aut die §5aut soli aut lunae miserias narrant suas: §6quos pol ego credo húmanas querimonias §7non tanti facere, quid velint quid non velint; §8vobis narrabo potius meas nunc miserias.
I do not act in the same way as I have seen others do in comedies by the force of love, who to either night or day, or to the sun or the moon, relate their miseries; whom, by Pollux, I believe care not a straw for human complaints, what they want or what they do not want; I shall rather relate my current miseries to you.
In Greek this play is called Philemon's Emporos, the same in Latin is Titus Maccius' Mercator.
My father sent me from here to Rhodes for trade; it is already two years since I left home.
§13ibi amare occepi forma eximia mulierem.
There I began to love a woman of exceptional beauty.
§14sed ea ut sim implicitus dicam, si operaest auribus §15atque advortendum ad animum adest benignitas.
But how I became entangled with her, I shall tell, if you have time to listen and if your kindness is present to direct your attention.
And in this, by Hercules, I have followed the way of lovers too little: †through my... I have attempted... and from there immediately...
§18nam amorem haec cuncta vitia sectari solent, §19cura aegritudo nimiaque elegantia, §31multiloquium: parumlóquium hoc ideo fit quia, §32quae nihil attingunt ad rem nec sunt usui, §33tam amator profert saepe advorso tempore; §34hoc pauciloquium rursum idcirco praedico, §35quia nullus umquam amator adeost callide §36facundus, quae in rem sint suam ut possit loqui.
For all these vices are accustomed to follow love: anxiety, distress, and excessive refinement, loquacity: and this briefness of speech arises from this, because things which have no relevance to the matter and are of no use, such things a lover often brings forward at an inopportune time; on the other hand, I declare this briefness of speech for this reason, because no lover is ever so cleverly eloquent that he can speak what is to his own advantage.
Now it is not right for you to be angry with me on account of my loquacity: Venus bequeathed this to me on the same day she did love.
§39illuc revorti certumst, conata eloquar.
I am resolved to return to that point; I shall relate what I have attempted.
§40principio ut ex ephebis aetate exii §41atque animus studio amotus puerilist meus, §42amare valide coepi hinc meretricem: ilico §43res exulatum ad illam clám abibat patris.
First, when I left the age of youth behind and my mind was removed from childish pursuits, I began to love a courtesan intensely here: immediately my father's property went into exile secretly to her.
The troublesome pimp, the master of that woman, snatched away to his house with all his might whatever he could.
§46obiurigare pater haec noctes et dies, §47perfidiam, iniustitiam lenonum expromere; §48lacerari valide suam rem, illius augerier.
My father began to chide these things nights and days, to expose the treachery and injustice of pimps; to say that his own property was being violently torn to pieces, while that man's was being increased.
He did this with the loudest shouting; sometimes muttering in private: refusing, denying indeed that I was his own son.
He kept shouting through the whole city and warning, that all should take care not to trust me if I wanted to borrow money.
§53amorem multos inlexe in dispendium: §54intemperantem, non modestum, iniurium §55trahere, exhaurire me quod quirem ab se domo; §56ratione pessuma a me ea quae ipsus optuma §57omnis labores invenisset perferens, §58in amoribus diffunditari ac didier.
He said that love had enticed many into ruin; that I, intemperate, immoderate, and lawless, was dragging away and draining from his house whatever I could; that by the worst method I was squandering on my love affairs those things which he himself, enduring all hardships, had acquired in the best way, and that they were being scattered and dissipated.
He said that for so many years he had been nourishing a source of reproach; that unless I was ashamed of this, he would not even care to live.
§61sese extemplo ex ephebis postquam excesserit, §62non, ut ego, amori neque desidiae in otio §63operam dedisse, neque potestatem sibi §64fuisse; adeo arte cohibitum esse se a patre: §65multo opere immundo rustico se exercitum, §66neque nisi quinto anno quoque †positum visere §67urbem, atque extemplo inde, ut spectavisset peplum, §68rus rusum confestim exigi solitum a patre.
He said that as soon as he himself had left youth, he had not, like me, given his attention to love or to idleness in leisure, nor had there been any opportunity for him; so tightly had he been kept in check by his father; that he had been exercised with much dirty rustic labor, nor could he visit the [established] city except every fifth year, and immediately from there, as soon as he had looked at the peplum, he was accustomed to be driven back to the country at once by his father.
§69ibi multo primum sese familiarium §70laboravisse, quom haec pater sibi diceret: §71tibi aras, tibi occas, tibi seris, tibi idem metis, §72tibi denique iste pariet laetitiam labos. §73postquam recesset vita patrio corpore, §74agrum se vendidisse atque ea pecunia §75navem, metretas quae trecentas tolleret, §76parasse atque ea se mercis mercatum undique, §77adeo dum, quae tum haberet, peperisset bona; §78me idem decere, si ut deceret me forem.
There he said that he had worked by far the hardest of all the servants, while his father said these things to him: 'For yourself you plow, for yourself you harrow, for yourself you sow, for yourself you reap, for yourself in the end that labor of yours will bring forth joy.' After life had departed from his father's body, he said that he sold the land and with that money had prepared a ship which would carry three hundred metretae, and with it he went trading for merchandise everywhere, until he had acquired the goods which he then possessed; that it was fitting for me to do the same, if I were such as I ought to be.
§79_80ego mé ubi invisum meo patri esse intellego
When I understand that I am hated by my father, I...