§3.9.1Memnona si mater, mater ploravit Achillem, §3.9.2Et tangunt magnas tristia fata deas, §3.9.3Flebilis indignos, Elegia, solve capillos!
If a mother wept for Memnon, and a mother for Achilles, and sad fates touch great goddesses, weeping Elegy, loosen your undeservingly disheveled hair!
§3.9.4A, nimis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit! —
Ah, too much from truth now will your name be!
That poet of your work, your fame, Tibullus, burns on the built-up pyre, a lifeless body.
§3.9.7Ecce, puer Veneris fert eversamque pharetram §3.9.8Et fractos arcus et sine luce facem; §3.9.9Adspice, demissis ut eat miserabilis alis §3.9.10Pectoraque infesta tundat aperta manu!
Look, Venus' boy carries both his overturned quiver and broken bow and torch without light; look how he goes, wretched, with drooped wings, and beats his bare breast with a beating hand!
The hair scattered over his neck catches his tears, and his mouth sounds with shaking sobs.
§3.9.13Fratris in Aeneae sic illum funere dicunt §3.9.14Egressum tectis, pulcher Iule, tuis; §3.9.15Nec minus est confusa Venus moriente Tibullo, §3.9.16Quam iuveni rupit cum ferus inguen aper.
They say he thus, at the funeral of his brother Aeneas, went out from your halls, beautiful Iulus; nor was Venus less confounded at the death of Tibullus than when the fierce boar ruptured the young man's groin.
Yet we are called sacred poets and the care of the gods; there are even those who think we possess divinity.
Doubtless, importunate death profanes everything sacred, she lays her dark hands upon all things!
§3.9.21Quid pater Ismario, quid mater profuit Orpheo?
What did his father, what did his mother profit Ismarian Orpheus?
§3.9.22Carmine quid victas obstipuisse feras?
What did it profit that the beasts, conquered by his song, stood amazed?
And in the deep woods, the same father is said to have sung 'aelinon!' for Linus with an unwilling lyre.
§3.9.25Adice Maeoniden, a quo ceu fonte perenni §3.9.26Vatum Pieriis ora rigantur aquis — §3.9.27Hunc quoque summa dies nigro submersit Averno.
Add the Maeonian, from whom, as from a perennial spring, the mouths of poets are wet with Pierian waters — him too his last day submerged in black Avernus.
§3.9.28Defugiunt avidos carmina sola rogos; §3.9.29Durant, vatis opus, Troiani fama laboris §3.9.30Tardaque nocturno tela retexta dolo.
Songs alone escape the greedy funeral pyres; the fame of the Trojan labor, the poet's work, endures, and the slow web unthreaded by nightly guile.
Thus Nemesis, thus Delia will have a lasting name, one his recent care, the other his first love.
§3.9.33Quid vos sacra iuvant? quid nunc Aegyptia prosunt
What do your sacred rites help you?
§3.9.34Sistra? quid in vacuo secubuisse toro?
What now do Egyptian sistra profit? What, to have slept apart in an empty bed?
When evil fates snatch away the good — forgive me for confessing! — I am tempted to think there are no gods.
§3.9.37Vive pius — moriere; pius cole sacra — colentem §3.9.38Mors gravis a templis in cava busta trahet; §3.9.39Carminibus confide bonis — iacet, ecce, Tibullus: §3.9.40Vix manet e toto, parva quod urna capit!
Live pious — you will die; pious, worship sacred things — heavy death will drag from the temples to the hollow tombs; trust in good songs — look, Tibullus lies dead: scarcely remains of the whole of him what a small urn contains!
Did the pyre's flames snatch you, sacred poet, and did they not fear to feed upon your breast?
They could have burned the golden temples of the holy gods, since they sustained such a great impiety!
§3.9.45Avertit vultus, Erycis quae possidet arces; §3.9.46Sunt quoque, qui lacrimas continuisse negant.
She who possesses the citadel of Eryx averts her face; there are also those who say she did not hold back her tears.
But yet this is better than if the Phaeacian land had placed you, unknown, under its cheap soil.
§3.9.49Hinc certe madidos fugientis pressit ocellos §3.9.50Mater et in cineres ultima dona tulit; §3.9.51Hinc soror in partem misera cum matre doloris §3.9.52Venit inornatas dilaniata comas, §3.9.53Cumque tuis sua iunxerunt Nemesisque priorque §3.9.54Oscula nec solos destituere rogos.
Here at least your mother closed your moist, fleeing eyes and brought the last gifts to your ashes; here your sister, along with your wretched mother, came into her share of grief, with her unadorned hair torn, and both Nemesis and your former love joined their kisses with yours, and did not leave the pyre lonely.
§3.9.55Delia discedens 'felicius' inquit 'amata §3.9.56Sum tibi; vixisti, dum tuus ignis eram. ' §3.9.57Cui Nemesis 'quid' ait 'tibi sunt mea damna dolori?
Delia, departing, said, "I was loved more happily by you; you lived while I was your flame." To whom Nemesis said, "Why are my losses a grief to you?
§3.9.58Me tenuit moriens deficiente manu. ' §3.9.59Si tamen e nobis aliquid nisi nomen et umbra §3.9.60Restat, in Elysia valle Tibullus erit.
He held me as he died with a failing hand." If, however, something of us remains besides a name and a shadow, Tibullus will be in the Elysian valley.
§3.9.61Obvius huic venias hedera iuvenalia cinctus §3.9.62Tempora cum Calvo, docte Catulle, tuo; §3.9.63Tu quoque, si falsum est temerati crimen amici, §3.9.64Sanguinis atque animae prodige Galle tuae.
May you come to meet him, girded about your youthful temples with ivy, learned Catullus, along with your Calvus; you too, if the accusation of a betrayed friend is false, Gallus, lavish of your blood and of your soul.