Your husband is going to attend the same banquet as us — may that dinner be the last, I pray, for your husband!
§1.4.3Ergo ego dilectam tantum conviva puellam
Am I then only as a guest to look upon my beloved girl?
Will there be another whom it pleases to touch you, and will you warmly cherish another's bosom, fittingly close?
§1.4.6Iniciet collo, cum volet, ille manum?
Will he cast his hand upon your neck when he wishes?
I cease to wonder that the fair daughter of Atrax, when the wine was set, dragged the double-formed men into battle.
§1.4.9Nec mihi silva domus, nec equo mea membra cohaerent — §1.4.10Vix a te videor posse tenere manus!
My home is not the forest, nor do my limbs cohere to a horse — yet I seem scarcely able to keep my hands off you!
§1.4.11Quae tibi sint facienda tamen cognosce, nec Euris §1.4.12Da mea nec tepidis verba ferenda Notis!
Learn, however, what must be done by you, nor give my words to the East winds or the warm South winds to carry away!
§1.4.13Ante veni, quam vir — nec quid, si veneris ante, §1.4.14Possit agi video; sed tamen ante veni.
Come before your husband — nor do I see what can be done if you come before; but come before anyway.
§1.4.15Cum premet ille torum, vultu comes ipsa modesto §1.4.16Ibis, ut accumbas — clam mihi tange pedem!
When he presses the couch, you yourself will go as his modest companion to recline — secretly touch my foot!
Look at me, and my nods, and my speaking face; catch my secret signs, and return them yourself.
I will speak words with my eyebrows, telling without voice; you will read words with my fingers, words traced in wine.
When the playfulness of our love comes to your mind, touch your blushing cheeks with your tender thumb.
If there is anything of which you complain about me in your silent mind, let your soft hand hang from the tip of your ear.
§1.4.25Cum tibi, quae faciam, mea lux, dicamve, placebunt, §1.4.26Versetur digitis anulus usque tuis.
When what I do or say pleases you, my light, let your ring be turned constantly by your fingers.
Touch the table with your hand in the way that suppliants touch, when you wish many evils, as he deserves, upon your husband.
§1.4.29Quod tibi miscuerit, sapias, bibat ipse, iubeto; §1.4.30Tu puerum leviter posce, quod ipsa voles.
What he mixes for you, be wise, bid him drink it himself; ask the slave boy quietly for what you yourself wish.
I will be the first to take the cups you have returned, and I will drink from that part where you drank.
If by chance he gives you what he himself has tasted beforehand, reject the food tasted by his mouth.
§1.4.35Nec premat inpositis sinito tua colla lacertis, §1.4.36Mite nec in rigido pectore pone caput; §1.4.37Nec sinus admittat digitos habilesve papillae; §1.4.38Oscula praecipue nulla dedisse velis!
Nor allow him to press your neck with his arms thrown around you, nor place your gentle head on his hard breast; let neither his fingers enter your bosom nor your touchable breasts; especially wish to have given him no kisses!
If you give him kisses, I shall become an open lover, and I will say 'They are mine!' and cast my hand upon you.
§1.4.41Haec tamen adspiciam, sed quae bene pallia celant, §1.4.42Illa mihi caeci causa timoris erunt.
Yet these I shall see, but the things which the cloak well conceals, those will be to me a cause of blind fear.
Neither join thigh to thigh, nor cling with leg to leg, nor join your tender foot with his hard foot.
Wretchedly I fear many things, because I have done many things boldly, and behold, I am tortured by the fear of my own example.
Often for me and my mistress, a hastened pleasure accomplished its sweet work under a covering garment.
This you will not do; but, lest you be thought to have done it, remove the conscious cloak from your back.
§1.4.51Vir bibat usque roga — precibus tamen oscula desint! — §1.4.52Dumque bibit, furtim si potes, adde merum.
Ask him to drink constantly — let kisses, however, be absent from your entreaties! — and while he drinks, if you can, secretly add unmixed wine.
If he lies well-disposed in sleep and wine, the occasion and the place will give us counsel.
When you rise to go home, we all shall rise as well; remember to go into the middle of the crowd's column.
In that column you will find me, or you will be found in it: whatever of me you can touch there, touch.
§1.4.59Me miserum! monui, paucas quod prosit in horas;
Wretched me!
§1.4.60Separor a domina nocte iubente mea.
I have advised what will be useful for a few hours; I am separated from my mistress by the command of night.
§1.4.61Nocte vir includet, lacrimis ego maestus obortis, §1.4.62Qua licet, ad saevas prosequar usque fores.
At night her husband will shut her in; I, sad with rising tears, will follow as far as is allowed, right up to the cruel doors.
§1.4.63Oscula iam sumet, iam non tantum oscula sumet: §1.4.64Quod mihi das furtim, iure coacta dabis.
Now he will take kisses, now he will take not only kisses: what you give to me secretly, you will give to him forced by right.
§1.4.65Verum invita dato — potes hoc — similisque coactae; §1.4.66Blanditiae taceant, sitque maligna Venus.
But give them unwillingly — you can do this — and like one forced; let endearments be silent, and let Venus be unkind.