Often recall with yourself the deeds of the wicked girl, and place all your losses before your eyes.
'She has this and that, nor is she content with that plunder: that greedy woman sent our household gods under the auction title.
§303Sic mihi iuravit, sic me iurata fefellit, §304Ante suas quotiens passa iacere fores! §305Diligit ipsa alios, a me fastidit amari; §306Institor, heu, noctes, quas mihi non dat, habet!' §307Haec tibi per totos inacescant omnia sensus: §308Haec refer, hinc odii semina quaere tui.
Thus she swore to me, thus having sworn she deceived me, how many times did she allow me to lie before her doors!' She herself loves others, she disdains to be loved by me; alas, a peddler holds the nights which she does not give to me!' Let all these things grow sour for you throughout your entire senses: recall these, seek from here the seeds of your hatred.
§309Atque utinam possis etiam facundus in illis
And would that you could also be eloquent in them!
§310Esse! dole tantum, sponte disertus eris.
Only grieve, you will be eloquent of your own accord.
§311Haeserat in quadam nuper mea cura puella: §312Conveniens animo non erat illa meo: §313Curabar propriis aeger Podalirius herbis, §314Et, fateor, medicus turpiter aeger eram.
Lately, my care had clung to a certain girl: she was not suitable to my mind: I was being cured as a sick Podalirius by my own herbs, and, I confess, I was a physician shamefully sick.
It was profitable to insist continually on the faults of the mistress, and that having been done was often healthy for me.
'How bad,' I said, 'are the legs of our girl!' And yet, to confess truly, they were not.
'How far from beautiful are the arms of our girl!' And yet, to confess truly, they were.
§321'Quam brevis est!' nec erat; 'quam multum poscit amantem!' §322Haec odio venit maxima causa meo.
'How short she is!' (nor was she); 'how much she demands from her lover!' This came as the greatest cause of my hatred.
And bad things are adjacent to good things; under that error, virtue has often borne accusations in place of a vice.
In whatever way you can, bend the virtues of the girl into worse, and deceive your judgment by a narrow boundary.
Let her be called bloated if she is full-figured, and black if she is dark: leanness in a slender girl can be turned into an accusation.
And she who is not rustic can be called impudent: and she can be called rustic if any is virtuous.
Moreover, whatever virtue your woman lacks, urge her to this, pray constantly with coaxing sounds.
Demand that she sing if there is any girl without a voice: make her dance if any does not know how to move her hand.
§335Barbara sermone est? fac tecum multa loquatur;
Is she rude in speech?
§336Non didicit chordas tangere? posce lyram.
Make her speak much with you; has she not learned to touch the strings? Ask for the lyre.
§337Durius incedit? fac inambulet; omne papillae
Does she walk too stiffly? Make her walk about; do breasts occupy her whole chest?
§338Pectus habent? vitium fascia nulla tegat.
Let no breastband cover that fault.
If she has bad teeth, tell her something that she may laugh at; has she soft eyes? Tell her something that she may weep.
It will also be useful suddenly, when she has not adorned herself for anyone, to have carried swift steps in the morning to your mistress.
We are carried away by dress; by gems and gold everything is covered; the girl herself is the least part of herself.
Often you may ask where that which you love is among so many things; wealthy Love deceives the eyes with this aegis.
Arrive unexpected; you will safely catch her unarmed: unfortunately, she will fall away by her own faults.
§349Non tamen huic nimium praecepto credere tutum est: §350Fallit enim multos forma sine arte decens.
Yet it is not too safe to trust this precept: for a fitting beauty without art deceives many.
Then also, when she smears her face with compounded potions, go to the face of your mistress (nor let shame stand in the way).
You will find boxes and a thousand colors of things, and sheep-grease melting and flowing into warm bosoms.
§355Illa tuas redolent, Phineu, medicamina mensas: §356Non semel hinc stomacho nausea facta meo est.
Those remedies smell of your tables, Phineus: not once from here has nausea been made for my stomach.
Now I will speak to you of those things which we should provide in the midst of love's practice: love must be routed from every part.
To be sure, it is a shame for me to say many of those things; but you conceive more in your mind from my words.
For lately some have criticized my little books, by whose judgment my Muse is wanton.
As long as I please thus, as long as I am sung in the whole world, let one or another attack my work as they please.
Envy detracts from the genius of great Homer: whoever you are, Zoilus, you have your name from him.
And sacrilegious tongues tore at your poems also, under whose guidance Troy brought its conquered gods to this place.
§369Summa petit livor; perflant altissima venti:
Envy seeks the highest; winds blow hardest upon the summits.