§3.80Qui, nisi carptus erit, turpiter ipse cadet.
Which, unless it is plucked, will itself shamefully fall.
Add [to this] that childbearing also makes the times of youth shorter; the field grows old with continuous harvest.
Endymion of Latmus is not a cause of blushing to you, O Moon, nor is Cephalus a shameful prey to the rosy goddess.
Even though Adonis is granted to Venus, whom she still mourns: from where does she have her Aeneas and Harmonia?
Go after the example of the goddesses, O mortal race, and do not deny your pleasures to eager men.
Even if they should now deceive, what do you lose? Everything remains; though they take a thousand times, nothing is destroyed therefrom.
Iron is worn away, flints are thinned by use: that part is sufficient and is free from fear of damage.
§3.93Quis vetet adposito lumen de lumine sumi?
Who would forbid a light to be taken from an adjacent light?
§3.94Quisve cavo vastas in mare servet aquas?
Or who would keep vast waters in a hollow reservoir from the sea?
§3.95Et tamen ulla viro mulier 'non expedit' inquit?
And yet does any woman say to a man "it is not expedient"?
§3.96Quid, nisi quam sumes, dic mihi, perdis aquam?
What water do you lose, tell me, except the water you take?
Nor does my voice prostitute you, but it forbids you to fear vain losses: your gifts are free from losses.
But as I am about to go with the blasts of a greater wind, while we are in port, let a light breeze carry me forward.
§3.101Ordior a cultu; cultis bene Liber ab uvis
I begin with grooming; Bacchus comes well from cultivated grapes, and a tall crop stands in cultivated soil.
Beauty is a gift of God: how few can pride themselves on beauty?
§3.104Pars vestrum tali munere magna caret.
A great part of you lacks such a gift.
Care will give a face; a neglected face will perish, even though it be like that of the Idalian goddess.
§3.107Corpora si veteres non sic coluere puellae, §3.108Nec veteres cultos sic habuere viros; §3.109Si fuit Andromache tunicas induta valentes,
If the girls of old did not cultivate their bodies thus, nor did the old men have such cultivated men; if Andromache was clad in strong tunics, what wonder?
§3.110Quid mirum? duri militis uxor erat.
She was the wife of a rugged soldier.
Would you, indeed, come adorned as a wife to Ajax, whose covering was the hides of seven bulls?
Before, there was a rude simplicity: now Rome is golden, and possesses the great wealth of the conquered world.
Look at what the Capitoline is now, and what it was: you would say they belonged to another Jupiter.
The Senate-house, which is now most worthy of so great an assembly, was made of thatch when Tatius held the kingdom.
The Palatine buildings which now shine under Apollo and our leaders, what were they but pastures for oxen about to plow?
Let ancient things please others: I congratulate myself that I was born now at last: this age is suited to my manners.
§3.123Non quia nunc terrae lentum subducitur aurum, §3.124Lectaque diverso litore concha venit: §3.125Nec quia decrescunt effosso marmore montes, §3.126Nec quia caeruleae mole fugantur aquae: §3.127Sed quia cultus adest, nec nostros mansit in annos §3.128Rusticitas, priscis illa superstes avis.
Not because tough gold is now drawn from the earth, and selected pearls come from diverse shores: nor because mountains shrink from quarried marble, nor because the blue waters are driven back by moles: but because refinement is here, and rusticity has not remained into our years, that rusticity which survived from our ancient ancestors.
§3.129Vos quoque nec caris aures onerate lapillis, §3.130Quos legit in viridi decolor Indus aqua, §3.131Nec prodite graves insuto vestibus auro, §3.132Per quas nos petitis, saepe fugatis, opes.
You too, do not load your ears with costly gems, which the discolored Indian gathers in green water, nor go forth heavy with gold sewn into your garments, by which wealth you seek us, but often drive us away.
We are captured by neatness: let your hair not be without law: hands applied both give and deny beauty.
§3.135Nec genus ornatus unum est: quod quamque decebit §3.136Eligat, et speculum consulate ante suum.
Nor is there only one kind of adornment: let each choose what will become her, and consult her mirror first.
A long face approves a part down a clear head: so was Laodamia with her adorned hair.
A round face wants a small knot to be left on the top of the forehead, so that the ears are exposed.
Let another's hair be tossed over each shoulder: such are you, tuneful Apollo, when your lyre is taken up.
Let another be bound in the manner of girt Diana, as she is wont, when she hunts startled wild beasts.
§3.145Huic decet inflatos laxe iacuisse capillos: §3.146Illa sit adstrictis impedienda comis; §3.147Hanc placet ornari testudine Cyllenea: §3.148Sustineat similes fluctibus illa sinus.
For this one, it is fitting for loose hair to lie flowing: let that one be confined with tight hair; this one likes to be adorned with the Cyllenian tortoise-shell: let that one sustain waves-like folds.
§3.149Sed neque ramosa numerabis in ilice glandes, §3.150Nec quot apes Hyblae, nec quot in Alpe ferae, §3.151Nec mihi tot positus numero conprendere fas est: §3.152Adicit ornatus proxima quaeque dies.
But you will neither count the acorns on a branchy oak, nor how many bees of Hybla, nor how many wild beasts on the Alps, nor is it permitted for me to comprehend so many arrangements in number: each coming day adds new adornments.
And neglected hair becomes many; often you would believe it lay from yesterday; yet it has just been combed.
§3.155Ars casum simulat; sic capta vidit ut urbe §3.156Alcides Iolen, 'hanc ego' dixit 'amo. ' §3.157Talem te Bacchus Satyris clamantibus euhoe §3.158Sustulit in currus, Cnosi relicta, suos. §3.159O quantum indulget vestro natura decori, §3.160Quarum sunt multis damna pianda modis!
Art simulates chance; thus, when the city was captured, did Alcides see Iole, and say: "This is the one I love." Such did Bacchus lift you into his chariot, O abandoned Ariadne, while the Satyrs were shouting "Euhoe." O how much nature indulges your beauty, whose losses must be expiated in many ways!