It is better to stretch our loins and rise up: Plautus' long play is coming onto the stage.
§3Si ex te tacente fieri possem certior, §4ere, quae miseriae te tam misere macerent, §5duorúm labori ego hominum parsissem lubens, §6mei te rogandi et tis respondendi mihi; §7nunc quoniam id fieri non potest, necessitas §8me subigit ut te rogitem.
If, master, I could be informed by you while you remain silent as to what miseries are so miserably wasting you away, I would have gladly spared the labor of two men— of my asking you and of your answering me; but now, since that cannot happen, necessity compels me to question you.
responde mihi: §9quid est quod tu exanimatus iam hos multos dies §10gestas tabellas tecum, eas lacrumis lavis, §11neque tui participem consili quemquam facis?
Answer me: why is it that you, pale with anxiety for these many days now, carry tablets with you, wash them with tears, and make no one a partner in your plan?
§12eloquere, ut quod ego nescio id tecum sciam.
Speak out, so that what I do not know I may know together with you.
§13Misere miser sum, Pseudole.
I am miserably miserable, Pseudolus.
This has nothing to do with Jupiter's judgment: I am being flogged under Venus' reign, not under Jupiter's.
§16Licet me id scire quid sit? nam tu me antidhac
May I know what that is?
§17supremum habuisti comitem consiliis tuis.
For you, before this, held me as the supreme companion in your plans.
§18Idem animus nunc est.
The same mind is mine now.
Make me certain of what is wrong with you; I will help either with wealth, or with effort, or with good counsel.
Take these tablets, tell yourself from here what misery and worry is wasting me away.
§22Mos tibi geretur.
Your wish shall be granted.
sed quid hoc, quaeso?
But what is this, I pray?
§22bQuid est?
What is it?
As I think, these letters are seeking children for themselves: one climbs on top of another.
§24bLudis iam ludo tuo?
Are you playing your usual game now?
By Pollux, I believe that unless a Sibyl reads these, no one else can interpret them.
Why do you speak unkindly of charming letters written on charming tablets by a charming hand?
§29An, opsecro hercle, habent quas gallinae manus?
By Hercules, I ask you, do hens have hands?
§30nam has quidem gallina scripsit.
For a hen certainly wrote these.
§30bOdiosus mihi es.
You are annoying to me.
§31lege vel tabellas redde.
Read, or else return the tablets.
§31bImmo enim pellegam.
Nay, indeed I will read them through.
§32advortito animum.
Give me your attention.
§32bNon adest.
It is not here.
§32cAt tu cita.
But summon it then.
Nay, I will be silent; you summon it from the wax there; for my mind is now there, not in my breast.
§35Tuam amicam video, Calidore.
I see your girlfriend, Calidorus.
§35bVbi ea est, opsecro?
Where is she, I pray?
§36Eccam in tabellis porrectam: in cera cubat.
See her stretched out in the tablets: she is lying on the wax.
May the gods and goddesses, as many as there are— Save you indeed.
I was like a midsummer herb for a little while: suddenly I sprang up, suddenly I withered away.
§40Tace, dúm tabellas pellego.
Be silent, while I read the tablets through.
§40bErgo quin legis?
Why don't you read then?
§41“Phoenicium Calidoro amatori suo §42per ceram et lignum litterasque interpretes §43salutem mittit et salutem abs te expetit, §44lacrumans titubanti ánimo, corde et pectore. ” §45Perii, salutem nusquam invenio, Pseudole,
“Phoenicium to her lover Calidorus, through wax and wood and letters as her interpreters, sends greeting and seeks salvation from you, weeping with a trembling mind, heart, and breast.” I am ruined, Pseudolus; I find no salvation anywhere to send back to her.
§46cArgenteam.
One of silver.
§47Pro lignean salute vis argenteam
Instead of a wooden greeting, do you wish to send back a silver salvation to her?
§48remittere illi? vide sis quam tu rem geras.
Please see what you are doing.
Just read on: from the tablets I will soon make you know how suddenly the need has arisen for me to find silver.
§51“Leno me peregre militi Macedonio §52minis viginti vendidit, voluptas mea; §53et prius quam hinc abiit, quindecim miles minas §54dederat; nunc unae quinque remorantur minae.
“The pimp sold me abroad to a Macedonian soldier for twenty minae, my darling; and before he departed hence, the soldier had given fifteen minae; now only five minae remain.
§55ea caúsa miles hic reliquit symbolum, §56expressam in cera ex anulo suam imaginem, §57ut qui huc adferret eius similem symbolum, §58cum eo simul me mitteret.
For that reason, the soldier left a token here, his own image pressed into the wax from his ring, so that whoever brought a similar token here, he would send me away together with him.
For this matter this day has been appointed, the next Dionysia.” Indeed, those are tomorrow!
Destruction is near at hand for me, unless there is some help for me in you.
§61bSine pellegam.
Let me read it through.
I let you, for I seem to myself to be talking with her; read: you are now mixing sweet and bitter together for me.
§64“Nunc nostri amores mores consuetudines, §66compressiones artae amantum corporum, §67teneris labellis molles morsiunculae, §68papillarum horridularum oppressiunculae, §69harunc voluptátum mi omnium atque itidem tibi §70distractio discidium vastities venit, §71nisi quae mihi in test aut tibist in me salus.
“Now our love, ways, intimacy, the tight embraces of lovers' bodies, the soft little bites with tender lips, the gentle pressings of perky breasts— of all these pleasures, for me and likewise for you, tearing away, separation, and devastation are coming, unless there is some salvation for me in you, or for you in me.
§72haec quaé ego scivi ut scires curavi omnia; §73nunc ego te experiar quid ames, quid simules. vale. ”
I have taken care that you know all these things which I have known; now I shall test you, to see how much you love, and how much you pretend.
§74Est misere scriptum, Pseudole.
Farewell.” It is miserably written, Pseudolus.
§74bO, miserrime.
Oh, most miserably.
§75Quin fles?
Why don't you weep?
§75bPumiceos oculos habeo: non queo
I have eyes of pumice-stone: I cannot.