What day was that, on which for a lover always wretched you non-white birds sang together ill-omened things?
Or what star should I think is confronting my fate, or what gods should I complain are waging war against me?
§3.12.5Quae modo dicta mea est, quam coepi solus amare, §3.12.6Cum multis vereor ne sit habenda mihi.
She who was lately called mine, whom I alone began to love, I fear must be shared by me with many.
§3.12.7Fallimur, an nostris innotuit illa libellis?
Am I mistaken, or has she become known through my books?
§3.12.8Sic erit — ingenio prostitit illa meo.
It must be so — she has prostituted herself through my talent.
§3.12.9Et merito! quid enim formae praeconia feci?
And deservedly! For why did I herald her beauty?
§3.12.10Vendibilis culpa facta puella mea est.
My girl has been made saleable by my own fault.
With me acting as a pimp she pleases; with me as guide, the lover is led in; the door was opened by my own hands.
Whether poems are of any use is doubtful; they have always done harm; they have been a source of envy for my blessings.
Though Thebes, though Troy existed, though the deeds of Caesar, Corinna alone moved my talent.
Would that I had touched poetry with the Muses turned away, and Phoebus had abandoned the work I had begun!
And yet it is not the custom to listen to poets as witnesses; I had preferred that weight should be absent from my words.
§3.12.21Per nos Scylla patri caros furata capillos §3.12.22Pube premit rabidos inguinibusque canes; §3.12.23Nos pedibus pinnas dedimus, nos crinibus angues; §3.12.24Victor Abantiades alite fertur equo.
Through us, Scylla, having stolen her father's dear hair, girds her groin and pubes with raging dogs; we gave wings to feet, we gave snakes to hair; the victorious descendant of Abas is said to be carried by a winged horse.
§3.12.25Idem per spatium Tityon porreximus ingens, §3.12.26Et tria vipereo fecimus ora cani; §3.12.27Fecimus Enceladon iaculantem mille lacertis, §3.12.28Ambiguae captos virginis ore viros.
Likewise, we stretched Tityos out over a vast space, and made three mouths for the viperous dog; we made Enceladus throwing missiles with a thousand arms, and men captured by the face of the ambiguous virgin.
We enclosed the Aeolian winds in Ithacan bags; the traitor Tantalus thirsts in the midst of the river.
§3.12.31De Niobe silicem, de virgine fecimus ursam.
Of Niobe we made a stone, of the virgin a bear.
§3.12.32Concinit Odrysium Cecropis ales Ityn; §3.12.33Iuppiter aut in aves aut se transformat in aurum §3.12.34Aut secat inposita virgine taurus aquas.
The bird of Cecrops sings of Odrysian Itys; Jupiter transforms himself either into birds or into gold, or as a bull cuts the waters with the virgin placed upon him.
§3.12.35Protea quid referam Thebanaque semina, dentes; §3.12.36Qui vomerent flammas ore, fuisse boves; §3.12.37Flere genis electra tuas, Auriga, sorores; §3.12.38Quaeque rates fuerint, nunc maris esse deas; §3.12.39Aversumque diem mensis furialibus Atrei, §3.12.40Duraque percussam saxa secuta lyram?
Why should I mention Proteus and the Theban seeds, the teeth; and that there were bulls that spewed flames from their mouths; that your sisters wept amber on their cheeks, Charioteer; and those which were ships are now goddesses of the sea; and the sun turned away from the furious feast of Atreus, and hard rocks that followed the struck lyre?
The fertile license of poets goes on to infinity, and does not bind its words with historical truth.