I, your hostess, Rhodopeian Phyllis, Demophoon, complain that you are absent beyond the promised time.
§2.3Cornua cum lunae pleno semel orbe coissent, §2.4Litoribus nostris ancora pacta tua est — §2.5Luna quater latuit, toto quater orbe recrevit; §2.6Nec vehit Actaeas Sithonis unda rates.
Once the horns of the moon should meet in full orb, your anchor was promised to our shores — four times the moon has hidden, four times she has grown again with full orb; yet the Sithonian wave does not carry Actaean ships.
If you should count the times — which we lovers count so well — our complaint does not come before its proper day.
§2.9Spes quoque lenta fuit; tarde, quae credita laedunt,
Hope too was slow; slowly we believe those things which, when believed, bring pain.
§2.10Credimus. invita nunc es amante nocens.
Now you are guilty, though your lover is unwilling.
Often I have been a liar to myself on your behalf, often I thought the stormy South winds were bringing back your white sails.
I cursed Theseus, because I thought he would not let you go; yet perhaps he did not delay your course.
Sometimes I feared lest, while you directed your course to the shallows of Hebrus, your shipwrecked stern had been submerged in the white water.
§2.17Saepe deos supplex, ut tu, scelerate, valeres, §2.18Cum prece turicremis sum venerata sacris; §2.19Saepe, videns ventos caelo pelagoque faventes, §2.20Ipsa mihi dixi: 'si valet ille, venit. ' §2.21Denique fidus amor, quidquid properantibus obstat, §2.22Finxit, et ad causas ingeniosa fui.
Often as a suppliant, that you, wicked man, might be well, I have worshipped the gods with prayer at incense-burning altars; often, seeing the winds favoring heaven and sea, I said to myself: 'If he is well, he is coming.' In short, faithful love imagined whatever blocks those who hasten, and I was ingenious at finding excuses.
But you linger absent; neither do the deities by whom you swore bring you back, nor do you return, moved by our love.
Demophoon, you have given both your words and your sails to the winds; I complain that the sails lack return, and the words lack faith.
§2.27Dic mihi, quid feci, nisi non sapienter amavi?
Tell me, what have I done, except that I loved unwisely?
§2.28Crimine te potui demeruisse meo.
By my very crime I might have deserved well of you.
§2.29Unum in me scelus est, quod te, scelerate, recepi; §2.30Sed scelus hoc meriti pondus et instar habet.
The only crime in me is that I received you, wicked man; but this crime has the weight and likeness of a merit.
§2.31Iura fidesque ubi nunc, commissaque dextera dextrae, §2.32Quique erat in falso plurimus ore deus?
Where now are your oaths and faith, and the right hand joined to right hand, and the god who was so often on your false lips?
Where now is Hymenaeus, promised for our shared years, who was the sponsor and hostage of my marriage?
§2.35Per mare, quod totum ventis agitatur et undis, §2.36Per quod nempe ieras, per quod iturus eras, §2.37Perque tuum mihi iurasti — nisi fictus et ille est — §2.38Concita qui ventis aequora mulcet, avum, §2.39Per Venerem nimiumque mihi facientia tela — §2.40Altera tela arcus, altera tela faces — §2.41Iunonemque, toris quae praesidet alma maritis, §2.42Et per taediferae mystica sacra deae.
By the sea, which is entirely tossed by winds and waves, through which indeed you had come, and through which you were about to go, and by your grandfather — unless he too is a fiction — who soothes the seas stirred up by the winds, you swore to me, by Venus and her weapons that work only too well on me — one weapon the bow, the other weapon the torches — and Juno, who kindly presides over marital beds, and by the mystic rites of the torch-bearing goddess.
If each of the gods should avenge his own deity from among so many violated, you alone will not be enough for the punishments.
§2.45Ah, laceras etiam puppes furiosa refeci, §2.46Ut, qua desererer, firma carina foret, §2.47Remigiumque dedi, quod me fugiturus haberes.
Ah, in my madness I even repaired your shattered ships, so that the keel by which I was to be deserted might be firm, and I gave you oarsmen, which you might have as you fled from me.
§2.48Heu! patior telis vulnera facta meis!
Alas! I suffer wounds made by my own weapons!
§2.49Credidimus blandis, quorum tibi copia, verbis; §2.50Credidimus generi nominibusque tuis; §2.51Credidimus lacrimis — an et hae simulare docentur?
We believed your flattering words, of which you have plenty; we believed your lineage and your names; we believed your tears — or are these too taught to feign?
§2.52Hae quoque habent artes, quaque iubentur, eunt?
Do these too have arts, and go where they are ordered?
§2.53Dis quoque credidimus.
We believed also the gods.
quo iam tot pignora nobis?
To what end now are so many pledges to us?
§2.54Parte satis potui qualibet inde capi.
I could have been sufficiently captured by any part of them.
Nor am I troubled that I helped you with port and place — this ought to have been the sum of my merit!
I regret having shamefully crowned my hospitality with the marriage bed, and having joined side to side.
I would prefer that the night which was before that one had been my last, while I, Phyllis, was able to die honorable.
I hoped for better, because I thought I had deserved it; whatever hope comes from merit comes justly.
To deceive a trusting girl is not a hard-won glory.
simplicitas digna favore fuit.
Simplicity was worthy of favor.
§2.65Sum decepta tuis et amans et femina verbis.
I, both loving and a woman, was deceived by your words.
§2.66Di faciant, laudis summa sit ista tuae!
May the gods grant that this be the summit of your praise!
And may you be set up in the midst of the city among the descendants of Aegeus; may your father stand before you, magnificent with his own inscriptions.
§2.69Cum fuerit Sciron lectus torvusque Procrustes §2.70Et Sinis et tauri mixtaque forma viri §2.71Et domitae bello Thebae fusique bimembres §2.72Et pulsata nigri regia caeca dei —
When Sciron shall have been read of, and grim Procrustes, and Sinis, and the mixed form of bull and man, and Thebes conquered in war, and the double-limbed ones routed, and the blind palace of the black god struck —