§17.200Non potes.
You cannot.
expediunt iam tua vela Phryges; §17.201Dum loqueris mecum, dum nox sperata paratur, §17.202Qui ferat in patriam, iam tibi ventus erit.
Already the Phrygians are preparing your sails; while you speak with me, while the hoped-for night is being prepared, there will already be a wind for you to carry you to your fatherland.
In the middle of your journey, you will leave behind joys full of novelty; our love will depart with the winds.
Or shall I follow, as you persuade, and see praised Pergama as a bride of the son of great Laomedon?
I do not so despise the proclamations of swift-winged fame that she may fill the lands with my disgraces.
What will Sparta be able to say of me, what all Achaea, what the nations of Asia, what your Troy?
What will Priam think of me, what will Priam's wife feel, and your so many brothers and Dardanian brides?
You too, how will you be able to hope that I will be faithful, and not be anxious because of your own examples?
Whosoever of strangers shall enter the Ilian ports, he will be a cause of anxious fear to you.
You yourself, as often as you are angry, will say to me: "Adulteress!" forgetting that your own crime is inherent in our fault!
§17.219Delicti fies idem reprehensor et auctor.
You will become at once the blamer and the author of the same offense.
§17.220Terra, precor, vultus obruat ante meos!
Earth, I pray, bury my face before that happens!
§17.221At fruar Iliacis opibus cultuque beato, §17.222Donaque promissis uberiora feram; §17.223Purpura nempe mihi pretiosaque texta dabuntur, §17.224Congestoque auri pondere dives ero!
But (you say) I shall enjoy Ilian wealth and a blessed life, and I shall receive gifts more abundant than promised; surely purple and precious tapestries will be given to me, and I shall be rich with a heaped-up weight of gold!
Forgive me for confessing — your gifts are not of such great value; somehow or other that land of mine holds me back.
§17.227Quis mihi, si laedar, Phrygiis succurret in oris?
Who will help me on Phrygian shores if I should be harmed?
§17.228Unde petam fratres, unde parentis opem?
Whence shall I seek my brothers' help, whence my parent's?
Deceitful Jason promised everything to Medea — was she any less expelled from the house of Aeson?
There was no Aeetes to whom she, despised, could return, no mother Idyia, nor sister Chalciope.
§17.233Tale nihil timeo — sed nec Medea timebat!
I fear no such thing — but neither did Medea fear!
§17.234Fallitur augurio spes bona saepe suo.
Good hope is often deceived by its own augury.
For all ships that are now tossed on the deep, you will find that the sea was gentle as they left the port.
§17.237Fax quoque me terret, quam se peperisse cruentam §17.238Ante diem partus est tua visa parens; §17.239Et vatum timeo monitus, quos igne Pelasgo §17.240Ilion arsurum praemonuisse ferunt.
The torch also terrifies me, which your mother was seen to have given birth to as a bloody thing before the day of her delivery; and I fear the warnings of the prophets, whom they say forewarned that Ilion would burn with Pelasgian fire.
§17.241Utque favet Cytherea tibi, quia vicit habetque §17.242Parta per arbitrium bina tropaea tuum, §17.243Sic illas vereor, quae, si tua gloria vera est, §17.244Iudice te causam non tenuere duae; §17.245Nec dubito, quin, te si prosequar, arma parentur.
And just as Cytherea favors you, because she won and holds the double trophies won through your judgment, so I fear those two who, if your glory is true, did not win their cause with you as judge; nor do I doubt that, if I follow you, arms will be prepared.
§17.246Ibit per gladios, ei mihi! noster amor.
Our love, alas for me! will go through swords.
§17.247An fera Centauris indicere bella coegit §17.248Atracis Haemonios Hippodamia viros — §17.249Tu fore tam iusta lentum Menelaon in ira §17.250Et geminos fratres Tyndareumque putas?
Did Hippodamia, daughter of Atrax, compel the Haemonian men to declare fierce war on the Centaurs — and do you think that Menelaus will be slow in so just an anger, and the twin brothers, and Tyndareus?
Although you boast well of yourself and speak of brave deeds, that face of yours dissents from your words.
§17.253Apta magis Veneri, quam sunt tua corpora Marti.
Your body is more suited for Venus than for Mars.
§17.254Bella gerant fortes, tu, Pari, semper ama!
Let the brave wage wars; you, Paris, always love!
Order Hector, whom you praise, to fight for you; the other warfare is worthy of your deeds.
§17.257His ego, si saperem pauloque audacior essem, §17.258Uterer; utetur, siqua puella sapit — §17.259Aut ego deposito sapiam fortasse pudore §17.260Et dabo cunctatas tempore victa manus.
These I would use, if I were wise and a little bolder; any girl will use them if she is wise — or perhaps I, having cast off shame, shall be wise and, conquered by time, shall give my long-delayed hands.
§17.261Quod petis, ut furtim praesentes ista loquamur, §17.262Scimus, quid captes conloquiumque voces; §17.263Sed nimium properas, et adhuc tua messis in herba est.
As to what you ask, that we speak of these things secretly in person, we know what you are chasing and what you call a conversation; but you hasten too much, and your harvest is still in the grass.
§17.264Et mora sit voto forsan amica tuo.
And delay may perhaps be friendly to your wish.
Thus far; let the letter, sharing the secret of a stealthy mind, now stop its work with a weary thumb.