§3.492Armaque in armatos sumere iura sinunt.
And the laws permit taking up arms against those who are armed.
§3.493Ducere consuescat multas manus una figuras, §3.494(A! pereant, per quos ista monenda mihi) §3.495Nec nisi deletis tutum rescribere ceris, §3.496Ne teneat geminas una tabella manus.
Let one hand accustom itself to write many styles of script, (Ah! let those perish, through whom I must give such warnings!) Nor is it safe to write back unless the wax has been smoothed over, lest a single tablet hold two different hands.
Let the lover always be called a woman to the one who writes: let 'she' be in your letters, who was actually 'he'.
§3.499Si licet a parvis animum ad maiora referre, §3.500Plenaque curvato pandere vela sinu, §3.501Pertinet ad faciem rabidos compescere mores: §3.502Candida pax homines, trux decet ira feras.
If it is permitted to turn the mind from small things to greater, and to spread full sails with a curved bosom, it concerns beauty to restrain wild behaviors: bright peace becomes humans, fierce anger becomes beasts.
The face swells with anger; the veins blacken with blood; the eyes flash more savagely than Gorgon fire.
§3.505'I procul hinc,' dixit 'non es mihi, tibia, tanti,' §3.506Ut vidit vultus Pallas in amne suos.
'Go far from here, flute; you are not worth so much to me,' she said, when Pallas saw her own features in the river.
If you also should look in a mirror in the midst of anger, hardly any of you would recognize her own face.
No less ruinous to your face is pride: love must be enticed by friendly eyes.
We hate excessive haughtiness (believe one who has experienced it): often a silent expression holds the seeds of hatred.
Look at the one looking at you, smile back gently at the one smiling: if he nods, you too return the accepted signs.
Thus, when that boy has finished his practice, leaving behind his blunt weapons, he draws the sharp arrows from his quiver.
We also hate gloomy women: let Ajax love Tecmessa; a cheerful woman captures us, a joyful people.
§3.519Numquam ego te, Andromache, nec te, Tecmessa, rogarem, §3.520Ut mea de vobis altera amica foret.
I would never ask you, Andromache, nor you, Tecmessa, that either of you should be my mistress.
I seem scarcely to believe, though forced to believe by childbirth, that you ever slept with your husbands.
Did a most gloomy woman indeed say to Ajax 'My light,' and such words as are accustomed to delight men?
Who forbids taking examples from great things to smaller matters, and not fearing the name of a commander?
§3.527Dux bonus huic centum commisit vite regendos, §3.528Huic equites, illi signa tuenda dedit: §3.529Vos quoque, de nobis quem quisque erit aptus ad usum, §3.530Inspicite, et certo ponite quemque loco.
A good commander entrusted to this man a hundred to be ruled by the staff, to this one horsemen, to that one standards to be guarded: you too, inspect which of us is fit for which use, and place each one in a certain position.
§3.531Munera det dives: ius qui profitebitur, adsit: §3.532Facundus causam saepe clientis agat: §3.533Carmina qui facimus, mittamus carmina tantum: §3.534Hic chorus ante alios aptus amare sumus.
Let the rich man give gifts; let him who professes law be at hand; let the eloquent man often plead the cause of a client; let us who make poems send only poems: we, this chorus, are fit to love before all others.
§3.535Nos facimus placitae late praeconia formae: §3.536Nomen habet Nemesis, Cynthia nomen habet: §3.537Vesper et Eoae novere Lycorida terrae: §3.538Et multi, quae sit nostra Corinna, rogant.
We make far-famed praise of the beauty we have liked: Nemesis has a name, Cynthia has a name; the Evening Star and the Eastern lands know Lycoris; and many ask who our Corinna might be.
Add that deception is absent from sacred poets, and our art also contributes to gentle character.
Neither ambition nor the love of possessing touches us; despising the forum, the couch and the shade are cultivated.
But we easily cling, and are burned by a powerful passion, and we know how to love with an all too certain loyalty.
Surely character is softened by a gentle art, and behavior goes in harmony with our pursuit.
Be gentle to Aonian poets, girls: a divinity is in them, and the Pierian muses favor them.
There is a god in us, and we have dealings with heaven: that inspiration comes from ethereal dwellings.
It is a crime to expect profit from learned poets; ah, wretched me! no girl fears this crime.
Yet disguise it, and do not be greedy at first sight: a new lover will hold back if he sees the net.
§3.555Sed neque vector equum, qui nuper sensit habenas, §3.556Comparibus frenis artificemque reget, §3.557Nec stabiles animos annis viridemque iuventam §3.558Ut capias, idem limes agendus erit.
But neither will a rider guide a horse that has recently felt the reins with the same bit and with a master's hand as an older one, nor will the same path have to be driven to capture steady minds of mature years and vigorous youth.
§3.559Hic rudis et castris nunc primum notus Amoris, §3.560Qui tetigit thalamos praeda novella tuos, §3.561Te solam norit, tibi semper inhaereat uni: §3.562Cingenda est altis saepibus ista seges.
This one, raw and now first known to the camps of Love, who has touched your chambers as a fresh prey, let him know you alone, let him always cling to you only: that crop must be surrounded by high fences.
Avoid a rival: you will win as long as you hold him alone; power and Venus do not remain well with partners.
§3.565Ille vetus miles sensim et sapienter amabit, §3.566Multaque tironi non patienda feret: §3.567Nec franget postes, nec saevis ignibus uret, §3.568Nec dominae teneras adpetet ungue genas, §3.569Nec scindet tunicasve suas tunicasve puellae, §3.570Nec raptus flendi causa capillus erit.
That veteran soldier will love gradually and wisely, and will bear many things not to be endured by a recruit: he will neither break the doorposts, nor burn them with cruel fires, nor attack the soft cheeks of his mistress with his nail, nor tear either his own tunics or the girl's, nor will torn hair be a cause of weeping.