Amor had read the title and the name of this little book: 'War, I see, war is being prepared against me,' he said.
'Spare to condemn your poet of a crime, Cupido, who have so often carried the standards entrusted under your leadership.
I am not the son of Tydeus, by whom your wounded mother returned into the liquid air on the horses of Mars.
Often other youths are lukewarm; I have always loved, and if you ask what I am doing now also, I love.
Nay, I have even taught by what art you could be won, and what is now a system was once an impulse.
Neither you, charming boy, nor our arts do we betray, nor has a new Muse unraveled the past work.
If anyone loves what it pleases to love, let him, happily burning, rejoice, and let him sail with his own wind.
But if anyone bears poorly the tyranny of an unworthy girl, lest he perish, let him feel the help of our art.
Why has some lover, his neck knotted in a noose, hung a sad burden from a high beam?
§19Cur aliquis rigido fodit sua pectora ferro?
Why has someone pierced his own breast with rigid iron?
§20Invidiam caedis, pacis amator, habes.
You, lover of peace, bear the odium of the slaughter.
He who, unless he desists, is doomed to perish of a miserable love, let him desist; and you will be the author of no one's death.
And you are a boy, and nothing is proper for you except to play: play; gentle reigns suit your years.
§27Vitricus et gladiis et acuta dimicet hasta, §28Et victor multa caede cruentus eat: §29Tu cole maternas, tuto quibus utimur, artes, §30Et quarum vitio nulla fit orba parens.
Let your stepfather fight both with swords and with the sharp spear, and let him go as victor, stained with much slaughter: you cultivate maternal arts, which we use safely, and by whose fault no parent is made bereaved.
§31Effice nocturna frangatur ianua rixa, §32Et tegat ornatas multa corona fores: §33Fac coeant furtim iuvenes timidaeque puellae, §34Verbaque dent cauto qualibet arte viro: §35Et modo blanditias rigido, modo iurgia posti §36Dicat et exclusus flebile cantet amans.
Make it so that the door is broken in a nocturnal brawl, and let many a garland cover the adorned gates: make it so that youths and timid girls meet secretly, and let them deceive the cautious husband by any art: and let the shut-out lover say now flatteries, now insults to the rigid post, and let him sing mournfully.
§37His lacrimis contentus eris sine crimine mortis; §38Non tua fax avidos digna subire rogos. ' §39Haec ego: movit Amor gemmatas aureus alas, §40Et mihi 'propositum perfice' dixit 'opus. ' §41Ad mea, decepti iuvenes, praecepta venite, §42Quos suus ex omni parte fefellit amor.
With these tears you will be content without the crime of death; your torch is not worthy to go under greedy funeral pyres.' Thus I spoke: golden Amor moved his gemmed wings, and said to me, 'Finish the proposed work.' Come to my precepts, deceived youths, whom your own love has deceived in every part.
Learn to be healed by him through whom you learned to love: the same hand will bring both the wound and the help to you.
§45Terra salutares herbas, eademque nocentes §46Nutrit, et urticae proxima saepe rosa est; §47Vulnus in Herculeo quae quondam fecerat hoste, §48Vulneris auxilium Pelias hasta tulit.
The earth nourishes salutary herbs, and the same nourishes harmful ones, and the rose is often closest to the nettle; the Pelian spear brought help for the wound which it had once made in the Herculean enemy.
§49Sed quaecumque viris, vobis quoque dicta, puellae, §50Credite: diversis partibus arma damus, §51E quibus ad vestros siquid non pertinet usus, §52Attamen exemplo multa docere potest.
But whatever is said to men, believe it said to you also, girls: we give weapons to opposing sides, of which, if anything does not pertain to your uses, yet it can teach much by example.
It is a useful purpose to extinguish fierce flames, and not to have a heart slave to its own vice.
§55Vixisset Phyllis, si me foret usa magistro, §56Et per quod novies, saepius isset iter; §57Nec moriens Dido summa vidisset ab arce §58Dardanias vento vela dedisse rates; §59Nec dolor armasset contra sua viscera matrem, §60Quae socii damno sanguinis ulta virum est.
Phyllis would have lived, if she had used me as teacher, and she would have gone more often the journey which she went nine times; nor would dying Dido have seen from her highest citadel the Dardanian ships give their sails to the wind; nor would grief have armed against her own offspring the mother who avenged her husband by the loss of shared blood.
By my art, Tereus, although Philomela pleased him, would not have deserved to become a bird through crime.
Give me Pasiphae, soon she will lay aside her love for the bull: give me Phaedra, the shameful love of Phaedra will depart.
Entrust Paris to us, Menelaus will keep Helen, nor will Pergama fall, conquered by Danaan hands.
If impious Scylla had read our little books, the purple hair would have clung to your head, Nisus.
Under my guidance, O men, restrain your damaging cares, and under my guidance let the straight ship go with its companions.
Naso had to be read then, when you learned to love: the same Naso will have to be read by you now.
As a public liberator, I will relieve breasts suppressed by masters: let each favor his own deliverance.
§75Te precor incipiens, adsit tua laurea nobis,
I pray to you, Apollo, as I begin, let your laurel be present for us,