§3.242Plorat in invisas sanguinolenta comas.
she weeps, bleeding onto the hated hair.
Let her who has bad hair place a guard at the threshold, or always be adorned in the temple of the Bona Dea.
I was once said to have come suddenly to a certain girl: in her confusion, she put her hair on backward.
May the cause of such foul shame happen to our enemies, and let that disgrace fall upon Parthian daughters-in-law.
§3.249Turpe pecus mutilum, turpis sine gramine campus, §3.250Et sine fronde frutex, et sine crine caput.
A hornless flock is ugly, a grassless field is ugly, and a leafless shrub, and a hairless head.
§3.251Non mihi venistis, Semele Ledeve, docendae, §3.252Perque fretum falso, Sidoni, vecta bove, §3.253Aut Helene, quam non stulte, Menelaë, reposcis, §3.254Tu quoque non stulte, Troice raptor, habes; §3.255Turba docenda venit, pulchrae turpesque puellae: §3.256Pluraque sunt semper deteriora bonis.
You have not come to me to be taught, Semele or Leda, or you, Sidonian girl, carried across the sea by the false bull, or Helen, whom you, Menelaus, demand back not foolishly, and you too, Trojan abductor, possess not foolishly; a crowd comes to be taught, beautiful and ugly girls: and the worse are always more numerous than the good.
§3.257Formosae non artis opem praeceptaque quaerunt: §3.258Est illis sua dos, forma sine arte potens; §3.259Cum mare compositum est, securus navita cessat: §3.260Cum tumet, auxiliis adsidet ille suis.
Beautiful women do not seek the aid and precepts of art: they have their own dowry, beauty powerful without art; when the sea is calm, the sailor rests free from care: when it swells, he sits by his aids.
Yet rare is the face that lacks a blemish: hide your blemishes, and conceal the defect of your body in whatever way you can.
§3.263Si brevis es, sedeas, ne stans videare sedere: §3.264Inque tuo iaceas quantulacumque toro; §3.265Hic quoque, ne possit fieri mensura cubantis, §3.266Iniecta lateant fac tibi veste pedes.
If you are short, sit, lest standing you seem to be sitting: and lie down, however small you are, on your couch; here too, lest the measure of you lying down can be taken, see to it that your feet lie hidden, covered by a garment thrown over them.
She who is too thin should wear garments of a full thread, and let a loose cloak hang from her shoulders.
Let the pale girl stripe her body with purple bands, you who are darker, fly to the aid of the Pharian fish.
Let an ugly foot always be hidden in snow-white leather: and do not unbind dry legs from their laces.
Thin shoulder-pads suit high shoulder-blades: let a band go around a narrow breast.
Let her express whatever she speaks with minimal gesture, she who has fat fingers and a rough nail.
She who has heavy breath should never speak on an empty stomach, and should always stand at a distance from a man's face.
If you have a black, or huge, or crookedly grown tooth, you will suffer the greatest damage by laughing.
§3.281Quis credat? discunt etiam ridere puellae,
Who would believe it?
§3.282Quaeritur aque illis hac quoque parte decor.
Girls even learn to laugh, and beauty is sought by them in this part too.
Let the gap of the mouth be moderate, and small dimples on both sides, and let the lower lips cover the top of the teeth.
Nor should they strain their flanks with perpetual laughter, but let them sound something light and feminine.
There is one who distorts her face with a crooked cackle: another is shaken by laughter, you would think she is weeping.
That one makes some hoarse sound and laughs unamiably, just as an ugly she-ass brays near the rough millstone.
§3.291Quo non ars penetrat? discunt lacrimare decenter,
Where does art not penetrate?
§3.292Quoque volunt plorant tempore, quoque modo.
They learn to cry becomingly, and they weep at whatever time and in whatever way they wish.
What when a letter is cheated of its proper sound, and a tongue, forced, becomes lisping at a commanded sound?
§3.295In vitio decor est: quaerunt male reddere verba; §3.296Discunt posse minus, quam potuere, loqui.
In a defect there is beauty: they seek to pronounce words badly; they learn to be able to speak less than they actually could.
On all these things, since they are beneficial, bestow care: learn to carry your bodies with a feminine gait.
In the gait, too, there is a part of beauty not to be despised: it attracts unknown men, and puts them to flight.
§3.301Haec movet arte latus, tunicisque fluentibus auras §3.302Accipit, expensos fertque superba pedes: §3.303Illa velut coniunx Umbri rubicunda mariti §3.304Ambulat, ingentes varica fertque gradus.
One moves her hip with art, and catches the breezes in her flowing tunics, and proudly carries her outstretched feet: another walks like the red-faced wife of an Umbrian husband, and takes huge straddling steps.
§3.305Sed sit, ut in multis, modus hic quoque: rusticus alter §3.306Motus, concesso mollior alter erit.
But let there be, as in many things, a limit here too: one movement is rustic, the other will be softer than is allowed.
Yet let the lowest part of your shoulder, and the uppermost part of your upper arm be bare, to be seen from the left side.
§3.309Hoc vos praecipue, niveae, decet: hoc ubi vidi, §3.310Oscula ferre umero, qua patet usque, libet.
This especially becomes you, fair-skinned ones: when I see this, I feel like planting kisses on the shoulder, as far as it is exposed.
The Sirens were monsters of the sea, who with their melodious voice detained ships, however fast they were sailing.
Having heard them, the son of Sisyphus almost unbound his body, for his companions had wax smeared in their ears.
Song is a charming thing: let girls learn to sing: for many, their voice has been a procuress in place of their face.
And let them now repeat songs heard in marble theaters, and now songs played in Nile-style rhythms.
And let an educated woman, in my judgment, not be ignorant of how to hold the plectrum in her right hand and the cithara in her left.
Rhodopeian Orpheus moved rocks and wild beasts with his lyre, and the lakes of Tartarus, and the triple dog.
§3.323Saxa tuo cantu, vindex iustissime matris,
Rocks by your song, most just avenger of your mother...