§1.464Effugiant voces verba molesta tuae.
Let annoying words escape your speech.
§1.465Quis, nisi mentis inops, tenerae declamat amicae?
Who, unless out of his mind, declaims to a tender mistress?
§1.466Saepe valens odii littera causa fuit.
Often an influential letter has been the cause of hatred.
Let your speech be credible to you, and your words customary, yet sweet, so that you may seem to speak in person.
If she does not receive the writing and sends it back unread, hope that she will read, and hold to your purpose.
§1.471Tempore difficiles veniunt ad aratra iuvenci, §1.472Tempore lenta pati frena docentur equi: §1.473Ferreus adsiduo consumitur anulus usu, §1.474Interit adsidua vomer aduncus humo.
In time, obstinate young bulls come to the plow, in time, horses are taught to endure the gentle bit: An iron ring is worn away by constant use, the curved plowshare perishes by the constant soil.
§1.475Quid magis est saxo durum, quid mollius unda?
What is harder than rock, what softer than a wave?
§1.476Dura tamen molli saxa cavantur aqua.
Yet hard rocks are hollowed out by soft water.
Penelope herself, if only you persist, you will conquer in time: you see Pergamum captured late, yet captured nonetheless.
§1.479Legerit, et nolit rescribere? cogere noli:
She has read, and is unwilling to write back?
§1.480Tu modo blanditias fac legat usque tuas.
Do not force her: you only see to it that she keeps reading your flatteries.
She who wished to read, will wish to write back once she has read: those things will come through their own numbers and steps.
Perhaps even at first a sad letter will come to you, and one that asks that you do not wish to trouble her.
§1.485Quod rogat illa, timet; quod non rogat, optat, ut instes; §1.486Insequere, et voti postmodo compos eris.
What she asks, she fears; what she does not ask, she wishes, namely that you press on; Pursue, and soon you will be master of your vow.
§1.487Interea, sive illa toro resupina feretur, §1.488Lecticam dominae dissimulanter adi, §1.489Neve aliquis verbis odiosas offerat auris, §1.490Qua potes ambiguis callidus abde notis.
Meanwhile, whether she is carried reclining on her couch, approach your mistress's litter dissemblingly, And lest anyone offer offensive ears to your words, hide them, as much as you can, cleverly with ambiguous signs.
§1.491Seu pedibus vacuis illi spatiosa teretur §1.492Porticus, hic socias tu quoque iunge moras: §1.493Et modo praecedas facito, modo terga sequaris, §1.494Et modo festines, et modo lentus eas: §1.495Nec tibi de mediis aliquot transire columnas §1.496Sit pudor, aut lateri continuasse latus; §1.497Nec sine te curvo sedeat speciosa theatro: §1.498Quod spectes, umeris adferet illa suis.
Or if the spacious portico is trodden by her with free feet, here too join your companionable delays: And see to it that now you lead, now follow her back, and now make haste, and now go slowly: Nor let it be a shame to you to pass across some columns from the midst, or to have joined side to side; Nor let the beautiful girl sit in the curved theater without you: she will bring what you may look at on her own shoulders.
It will be permitted to look back at her, to admire her: speak many things with your eyebrow, many things with gestures.
And applaud, when a mime is dancing any girl: and favor him, whoever is acted as a lover.
When she rises, you will rise; as long as she sits, you will sit; lose your time at the whim of your mistress.
But let it not please you to curl your hair with an iron, or rub your legs with biting pumice.
Command those to do such things, by whom the Cybelean mother is sung in howling Phrygian strains.
Neglected beauty becomes men; Theseus took away the daughter of Minos, his temples combed by no pin.
Phaedra loved Hippolytus, though he was not finely adorned; Adonis, suited to the woods, was the care of a goddess.
§1.513Munditie placeant, fuscentur corpora Campo: §1.514Sit bene conveniens et sine labe toga: §1.515Lingula ne rigeat, careant rubigine dentes, §1.516Nec vagus in laxa pes tibi pelle natet: §1.517Nec male deformet rigidos tonsura capillos: §1.518Sit coma, sit trita barba resecta manu.
Let them please by cleanliness; let their bodies be tanned in the Campus: let your toga be well fitting and without stain: Let the shoe-strap not be stiff, let your teeth lack rust, nor let your wandering foot swim in loose leather: nor let an ill-cut hair ruin your stiff locks: let your hair, let your beard be trimmed by an experienced hand.
§1.519Et nihil emineant, et sint sine sordibus ungues: §1.520Inque cava nullus stet tibi nare pilus.
And let your nails not project at all, and be without dirt: and let no hair stand for you in the hollow nostril.
Nor let there be the offensive breath of an ill-smelling mouth: nor let the husband and father of the herd injure the nostrils.
Leave other things to wanton girls to do, and whoever, barely a man, seeks to have a husband.
§1.525Ecce, suum vatem Liber vocat; hic quoque amantes §1.526Adiuvat, et flammae, qua calet ipse, favet.
Behold, Liber calls his own poet; he also helps lovers, and favors the flame with which he himself is warm.
The Cnossian girl was wandering madly on unfamiliar sands, where narrow Dia is struck by the ocean waters.
§1.529Utque erat e somno tunica velata recincta, §1.530Nuda pedem, croceas inreligata comas, §1.531Thesea crudelem surdas clamabat ad undas, §1.532Indigno teneras imbre rigante genas.
And as she was from sleep, clad in an ungirded tunic, barefoot, her yellow hair unbound, she cried 'cruel Theseus' to the deaf waves, while an undeserved shower of tears wet her tender cheeks.
§1.533Clamabat, flebatque simul, sed utrumque decebat; §1.534Non facta est lacrimis turpior illa suis.
She was crying and weeping at the same time, but both became her; she was not made uglier by her tears.
§1.535Iamque iterum tundens mollissima pectora palmis §1.536'Perfidus ille abiit; quid mihi fiet?' ait.
And now again beating her softest breast with her palms: 'That faithless man has gone; what will become of me?' she says.
'What will become of me?' she says: the cymbals resounded along the whole shore, and drums beaten by astonished hands.
She swooned with fear, and broke off her last words; there was no blood in her lifeless body.