Do you read it through? Or does your new wife forbid it? Read it through — that letter of yours is not made by a Mycenaean hand!
I, Oenone, a fountain-nymph, most famous in Phrygian forests, complain of you, who once were mine, as one injured, if you yourself allow it.
§5.5Quis deus opposuit nostris sua numina votis?
What god has opposed his divine power to our vows?
§5.6Ne tua permaneam, quod mihi crimen obest?
What crime stands in my way, that I do not remain yours?
Whatever you suffer because you deserved it is to be borne patiently; the punishment which comes to one undeserving comes to be grieved over.
You were not yet so great when I, a nymph born of a great river, was content with you as a husband.
You who are now a son of Priam — let respect be absent from the truth! — were a slave; I, a nymph, endured marrying a slave!
§5.13Saepe greges inter requievimus arbore tecti, §5.14Mixtaque cum foliis praebuit herba torum; §5.15Saepe super stramen faenoque iacentibus alto §5.16Defensa est humili cana pruina casa.
Often we rested among the flocks, covered by a tree, and the grass mixed with leaves provided a bed; Often, as we lay upon straw and high hay, the white frost was kept off by a humble hut.
Who used to show you the glades fit for hunting, and in what rock the wild beast hid her cubs?
Often as your companion I stretched the nets marked with meshes; often I drove the swift hounds over the long ridges.
§5.21Incisae servant a te mea nomina fagi, §5.22Et legor Oenone falce notata tua, §5.25Et quantum trunci, tantum mea nomina crescunt.
Beech trees, carved by you, preserve my name, and I am read as "Oenone," marked by your pruning-hook, And as much as the trunks grow, so much do my names grow.
§5.26Crescite et in titulos surgite recta meos!
Grow, and rise straight up into my monuments!
§5.27Popule, vive, precor, quae consita margine ripae §5.28Hoc in rugoso cortice carmen habes: §5.29Cum Paris Oenone poterit spirare relicta, §5.30Ad fontem Xanthi versa recurret aqua. §5.31Xanthe, retro propera, versaeque recurrite lymphae!
Live, O poplar, I pray, which, planted on the edge of the bank, keep this verse on your wrinkled bark: "When Paris shall be able to breathe, having abandoned Oenone, the water of Xanthus, turned back, will run backward to its source." Xanthus, hasten backward, and return, O turned waters!
§5.32Sustinet Oenonen deseruisse Paris.
Paris endures to have abandoned Oenone.
§5.33Illa dies fatum miserae mihi dixit, ab illa §5.34Pessima mutati coepit amoris hiemps, §5.35Qua Venus et Iuno sumptisque decentior armis §5.36Venit in arbitrium nuda Minerva tuum.
That day pronounced the doom to wretched me; from that day began the worst winter of changed love, on which Venus and Juno, and Minerva, more comely when her arms are laid aside, came naked to your judgment.
Your astonished breast throbbed, and a cold tremor ran, as you told me, through your hard bones.
I consulted — for indeed I was not moderately terrified — both old women and aged elders.
constitit esse nefas.
It was established to be an impiety.
Fir-wood was felled, beams were cut, and, a fleet prepared, the blue wave receives the waxed ships.
§5.43Flesti discedens — hoc saltim parce negare!
You wept as you departed — at least spare to deny this!
§5.44Miscuimus lacrimas maestus uterque suas; §5.45Non sic adpositis vincitur vitibus ulmus, §5.46Ut tua sunt collo bracchia nexa meo.
We mixed our tears, each of us sorrowful; Not so is the elm bound by the vines placed near it, as your arms were fastened around my neck.
Ah! How often, when you complained that you were held back by the wind, did your companions laugh — that wind was favorable!
§5.51Oscula dimissae quotiens repetita dedisti!
How often did you give repeated kisses to me as I was sent away!
§5.52Quam vix sustinuit dicere lingua 'vale'!
How barely did your tongue endure to say "farewell"!
A light breeze stirs the sails hanging from the rigid mast, and the water, dug up by the oars, grows white.
§5.55Prosequor infelix oculis abeuntia vela, §5.56Qua licet, et lacrimis umet harena meis, §5.57Utque celer venias, virides Nereidas oro — §5.58Scilicet ut venias in mea damna celer!
Wretched, I follow the departing sails with my eyes as far as it is permitted, and the sand is wet with my tears, and I pray the green Nereids that you may come swiftly — to be sure, that you may come swiftly to my ruin!
§5.59Votis ergo meis alii rediture redisti?
Did you then return, destined to return to another, because of my vows?
§5.60Ei mihi, pro dira paelice blanda fui!
Woe is me, I was sweet on behalf of a dreadful rival!
A natural rock-pile looks upon the immense deep — it was a mountain; it resists the waters of the sea.
From here I first recognized the sails of your ship, and I had an impulse to go through the waves.
While I delay, purple gleamed for me on the top of the prow — I grew deeply afraid; that was not your attire.
The ship comes nearer and touched the land with a swift breeze; I saw a woman's cheeks with a trembling heart.
That had not been enough — for why, mad, did I delay? — a shameful mistress was clinging to your bosom!
§5.71Tunc vero rupique sinus et pectora planxi, §5.72Et secui madidas ungue rigente genas, §5.73Inplevique sacram querulis ululatibus Iden §5.74Illuc has lacrimas in mea saxa tuli.
Then indeed I both tore my robe and beat my breast, and cut my wet cheeks with a stiff nail, and I filled sacred Ida with plaintive wailings; thither I bore these tears to my rocks.
Thus may Helen grieve and, abandoned by her husband, weep, and may she herself bear what she first brought upon us!
§5.77Nunc tibi conveniunt, quae te per aperta sequantur
Now those women suit you, who follow you through open plains...