§12.1Quid tibi vis, mulier nigris dignissima barris?
What do you want, woman most worthy of black elephants?
Why do you send me gifts, or why letters, to a youth who is neither strong nor of a dull nose?
§12.4namque sagacius unus odoror, §12.5polypus an gravis hirsutis cubet hircus in alis §12.6quam canis acer ubi lateat sus.
For I alone smell out more keenly whether a polyp or a rank goat dwells in hairy armpits, than a keen hound smells where a wild boar hides.
§12.7qui sudor vietis et quam malus undique membris §12.8crescit odor, cum pene Soluto §12.9indomitam properat rabiem sedare, neque illi §12.10iam manet umida creta colorque §12.11stercore fucatus crocodili iamque Subando §12.12tenta cubilia tectaque rumpit.
What sweat from her withered limbs and how bad an odor rises from everywhere, when, with [my] member limp, she hastens to appease her wild lust, and no longer on her does the wet chalk remain, nor the color painted with crocodile dung, and now, in her rut, she breaks the strained bed and the roof.
§12.13vel mea cum saevis agitat fastidia verbis: §12.14“Inachia langues minus ac me; §12.15Inachiam ter nocte potes, mihi Semper ad unum §12.16mollis opus.
Or when she attacks my squeamishness with cruel words: “You grow less limp with Inachia than with me; you can have Inachia three times a night, but for me you are always soft for a single act.
pereat male quae te §12.17Lesbia quaerenti taurum monstravit inertem.
May she perish miserably, that Lesbia who pointed you out to me when I was looking for a bull, you inert brute!
§12.18cum mihi Cous adesset Amyntas, §12.19cuius in indomito constantior inguine nervos §12.20quam nova collibus arbor inhaeret.
When Cosan Amyntas was at my side, in whose untamed groin the muscle clings more firmly than a young tree takes root on the hills.
For whom were the fleeces of wool twice-dyed with Tyrian purple being prepared in haste?
For you, of course, so that there would be no equal among your fellow guests whom his own woman loved more than she loved you.