I live, and yet I am not yours, Theseus—if only she lives, a woman buried by the deceit of a perjured husband.
§10.77Me quoque, qua fratrem mactasses, inprobe, clava; §10.78Esset, quam dederas, morte soluta fides.
Wicked man, if only you had slain me too with that club with which you slaughtered my brother; then the pledge which you had given would have been released by my death.
§10.79Nunc ego non tantum, quae sum passura, recordor, §10.80Et quaecumque potest ulla relicta pati: §10.81Occurrunt animo pereundi mille figurae, §10.82Morsque minus poenae quam mora mortis habet.
Now I imagine not only what I am about to suffer, but whatever any abandoned woman can suffer: A thousand forms of dying rush into my mind, and death itself has less pain than the delay of death.
Any moment now I suspect wolves will come, from this side or that, to tear my flesh with greedy teeth.
§10.85Quis scit an et fulvos tellus alat ista leones?
Who knows whether this land also nourishes tawny lions?
§10.86Forsitan et saevas tigridas insula habet.
Perhaps the island also holds savage tigresses.
§10.87Et freta dicuntur magnas expellere phocas!
And the seas are said to cast up great seals!
§10.88Quis vetat et gladios per latus ire meum?
And who forbids a sword to pierce my side?
§10.89Tantum ne religer dura captiva catena, §10.90Neve traham serva grandia pensa manu, §10.91Cui pater est Minos, cui mater filia Phoebi, §10.92Quodque magis memini, quae tibi pacta fui!
Only let me not be bound as a captive in hard chains, nor spin heavy tasks of wool with a slave's hand, I, whose father is Minos, whose mother is the daughter of Phoebus, and, what I remember more, who was betrothed to you!
Whether I look at the sea, the land, or the stretched-out shores, many things on land, many things in the waters threaten me.
§10.95Caelum restabat — timeo simulacra deorum!
Only heaven remained—yet I fear the phantoms of the gods!
§10.96Destitutor rabidis praeda cibusque feris; §10.97Sive colunt habitantque viri, diffidimus illis — §10.98Externos didici laesa timere viros.
I am abandoned as prey and food for rabid beasts; Or if men cultivate and inhabit it, I distrust them— having been harmed, I have learned to fear foreign men.
§10.99Viveret Androgeos utinam! nec facta luisses
Would that Androgeus were alive!
§10.100Inpia funeribus, Cecropi terra, tuis; §10.101Nec tua mactasset nodoso stipite, Theseu, §10.102Ardua parte virum dextera, parte bovem; §10.103Nec tibi, quae reditus monstrarent, fila dedissem, §10.104Fila per adductas saepe recepta manus.
Then, land of Cecrops, you would not have atoned for your impious deeds with your deaths; Nor, Theseus, would your towering right hand have slaughtered with a knotty club the beast that was part man, part bull; Nor would I have given you the threads that showed your return, threads often gathered back by hands drawn together.
Indeed I do not wonder if victory stands with you, and the prostrated beast beat the Cretan earth.
Your iron heart could not be pierced by a horn; even if you did not protect yourself, you were safe by your breast.
There you carried flint, there you carried adamant, there, Theseus, you have what surpasses even flint.
§10.111Crudeles somni, quid me tenuistis inertem?
Cruel sleep, why did you hold me helpless?
§10.112Aut semel aeterna nocte premenda fui.
Or rather, I should have been crushed once and for all by eternal night.
You too, winds, were cruel, and too ready, and you, breezes, too dutiful toward my tears.
Cruel right hand, which killed both me and my brother, and the pledge given to one who pleaded, an empty name!
Sleep, wind, and faith conspired against me; I, a single girl, have been betrayed by three causes!
§10.119Ergo ego nec lacrimas matris moritura videbo, §10.120Nec, mea qui digitis lumina condat, erit?
Shall I then, as I die, neither see my mother's tears, nor will there be anyone to close my eyes with his fingers?
Will my unhappy spirit go into foreign breezes, and no friendly hand anoint my laid-out limbs?
§10.123Ossa superstabunt volucres inhumata marinae?
Will sea-birds stand over my unburied bones?
§10.124Haec sunt officiis digna sepulcra meis?
Is this the burial worthy of my services?
§10.125Ibis Cecropios portus patriaque receptus, §10.126Cum steteris turbae celsus in ore tuae §10.127Et bene narraris letum taurique virique §10.128Sectaque per dubias saxea tecta vias, §10.129Me quoque narrato sola tellure relictam!
You will go to Cecropian ports, and received by your fatherland, when you stand lofty in the presence of your crowd, and have well narrated the death of the bull-man and that stone house cut through by doubtful paths, tell also of me, abandoned on a lonely land!
§10.130Non ego sum titulis subripienda tuis.
I must not be stolen away from your honors.
Neither is Aegeus your father, nor are you the son of Pittheus' daughter Aethra; the rocks and the sea are your parents!
Would that the gods had made you see me from the high stern; my sorrowful figure would have moved your face!
§10.135Nunc quoque non oculis, sed, qua potes, adspice mente §10.136Haerentem scopulo, quem vaga pulsat aqua.
Now also, look not with your eyes, but with your mind, in what way you can, at me clinging to the cliff, which the wandering water beats.
Look at my hair hanging down in the manner of a mourner, and my tunics heavy with tears as if from rain.
§10.139Corpus, ut inpulsae segetes aquilonibus, horret, §10.140Litteraque articulo pressa tremente labat.
My body shivers like crops struck by the north winds, and the letter, pressed by my trembling finger, falters.
I do not entreat you by my merit, since it turned out badly; let no gratitude be due for my deed.
§10.143Sed ne poena quidem! si non ego causa salutis,
But let there not even be punishment!
§10.144Non tamen est, cur sis tu mihi causa necis.
If I am not the cause of your safety, yet there is no reason why you should be the cause of my death.
§10.145Has tibi plangendo lugubria pectora lassas §10.146Infelix tendo trans freta lata manus; §10.147Hos tibi — qui superant — ostendo maesta capillos!
These hands, tired from beating my mournful breast, unhappy, I stretch out to you across the wide seas; Sad, I show you this hair—which remains!
§10.148Per lacrimas oro, quas tua facta movent — §10.149Flecte ratem, Theseu, versoque relabere velo!
I pray by the tears which your deeds arouse— Turn back your ship, Theseus, and glide back with reversed sail!
§10.150Si prius occidero, tu tamen ossa feres!
If I should die first, yet you will carry my bones!