§20.80Iamdudum dominae more venire iube.
Order me now at once to come in the manner of a mistress.
You yourself, imperious, may tear my hair, and my face may be bruised by your fingers.
I will endure everything; perhaps I shall fear only this, lest that hand of yours be hurt by my body.
But do not bind me with fetters nor with chains — I shall be kept bound by my firm love for you!
§20.87Cum bene se quantumque voles satiaverit ira, §20.88Ipsa tibi dices: 'quam patienter amat!' §20.89Ipsa tibi dices, ubi videris omnia ferri: §20.90'Tam bene qui servit, serviat iste mihi!' §20.91Nunc reus infelix absens agor, et mea, cum sit §20.92Optima, non ullo causa tuente perit.
When your anger has well and as much as you wish sated itself, you will say to yourself: 'How patiently he loves!' You will say to yourself, when you see everything is being endured: 'Let him who serves so well, serve me!' Now I am driven as an unhappy defendant in my absence, and my cause, though it is the best, perishes with no one to defend it.
§20.93Hoc quoque — quantumvis sit scriptum iniuria nostrum, §20.94Quod de me solo, nempe, queraris, habes.
This too — however much our writing may be an injustice, you have, to be sure, reason to complain of me alone.
Delia too did not deserve to be deceived along with me; if you do not wish to render to me what was promised, render it to the goddess.
She was present and saw when you, deceived, blushed, and she stored up your voice in her mindful ear.
May the omens lack reality! Nothing is more violent than she, when she sees her divinity violated — which I pray may not happen.
§20.101Testis erit Calydonis aper, sic saevus, ut illo §20.102Sit magis in natum saeva reperta parens.
The Calydonian boar will be a witness, so savage that because of it a mother was found to be more savage against her own son.
§20.103Testis et Actaeon, quondam fera creditus illis, §20.104Ipse dedit leto cum quibus ante feras; §20.105Quaeque superba parens saxo per corpus oborto §20.106Nunc quoque Mygdonia flebilis adstat humo.
Actaeon too is a witness, once believed to be a wild beast by those with which he himself had before put wild beasts to death; and that proud mother who, with stone rising up through her body, now also stands weeping on the Mygdonian soil.
§20.107Ei mihi! Cydippe, timeo tibi dicere verum, §20.108Ne videar causa falsa monere mea; §20.109Dicendum tamen est.
Ah me! Cydippe, I fear to tell you the truth, lest I seem to warn you falsely for my own sake; Yet it must be said.
hoc est, mihi crede, quod aegra §20.110Ipso nubendi tempore saepe iaces.
This is the reason, believe me, why you so often lie ill at the very time of your wedding.
She herself is consulting your interest, and she strives that you may not be perjured, and wishes you to be safe with your pledge kept safe.
Hence it happens that as often as you try to be faithless, so often does she correct your sin.
Spare to move the fierce bows of the high-spirited maiden; she can still become gentle, if you allow it.
Spare, I pray, to waste your tender limbs with fevers; let that face of yours be preserved for me to enjoy.
Let the looks be preserved that were born for my burning passion, and the gentle blush that lies beneath your snow-white face.
To my enemies, and if anyone fights against your becoming mine, may it be with them as it is wont to be with me when you are ill!
§20.123Torqueor ex aequo vel te nubente vel aegra §20.124Dicere nec possum, quid minus ipse velim; §20.125Maceror interdum, quod sim tibi causa dolendi §20.126Teque mea laedi calliditate puto.
I am tortured equally whether you marry another or are ill, and I cannot say which I myself would wish less; Sometimes I am wasted away because I am the cause of your pain, and I think you are hurt by my cleverness.
I pray that the perjury of my mistress may fall upon my own head; let her be safe through my punishment!
§20.129Ne tamen ignorem, quid agas, ad limina crebro §20.130Anxius huc illuc dissimulanter eo; §20.131Subsequor ancillam furtim famulumque, requirens §20.132Profuerint somni quid tibi quidve cibi.
Yet, lest I be ignorant of what you are doing, I go frequently anxious, here and there dissemblingly to your threshold; I follow your maid and manservant secretly, asking how much sleep or how much food has profited you.
Miserable me, that I do not administer the doctors' orders, and chafe your hands, and sit beside your bed!
§20.135Et rursus miserum, quod me procul inde remoto, §20.136Quem minime vellem, forsitan alter adest!
And again miserable, because while I am removed far from there, perhaps another is present, whom I would least of all wish!
§20.137Ille manus istas effingit, et adsidet aegrae §20.138Invisus superis cum superisque mihi, §20.139Dumque suo temptat salientem pollice venam, §20.140Candida per causam bracchia saepe tenet, §20.141Contrectatque sinus, et forsitan oscula iungit.
He chafes those hands of yours, and sits beside you in your illness, hated by the gods and by me along with the gods, and while he feels your throbbing vein with his thumb, he often holds your white arms under that pretext, and touches your breast, and perhaps joins kisses.
§20.142Officio merces plenior ista suo est!
That reward is too full for his service!
§20.143Quis tibi permisit nostras praecerpere messes?
Who permitted you to harvest our crops beforehand?
§20.144Ad saepem alterius quis tibi fecit iter?
Who made a path for you to another's hedge?
§20.145Iste sinus meus est! mea turpiter oscula sumis!
That breast is mine! You shamefully take my kisses!
§20.146A mihi promisso corpore tolle manus!
Take away your hands from the body promised to me!
§20.147Inprobe, tolle manus! quam tangis, nostra futura est; §20.148Postmodo si facies istud, adulter eris.
Shameless one, take away your hands! She whom you touch is to be mine; if you do that hereafter, you will be an adulterer.
Choose from the unpledged girls one whom another does not claim for himself; if you do not know it, that object has its own master.
Nor need you believe me — let the formula of the agreement be read aloud; and lest you say it is false, make her read it herself!
§20.153Alterius thalamo, tibi nos, tibi dicimus, exi!
From the bridal chamber of another, to you, yes to you, we say, go out!
§20.154Quid facis hic? exi! non vacat iste torus!
What are you doing here? Go out! That bed is not vacant!
For as to the fact that you too have the other words of a double pact, your cause will not on that account be equal to mine.