§370Summa petunt dextra fulmina missa Iovis.
Lightning bolts sent from the right hand of Jove seek the highest summits.
But as for you, whoever you are whom our licentiousness offends, if you are wise, demand each thing according to its own meters.
Brave wars rejoice to be related in Maeonian foot; what place can there be there for playful delights?
Tragic writers sound grandly; anger becomes tragic buskins: from the midst of daily practices, the comic sock must be held.
Let free iambus be drawn against opposing enemies, whether swift, or whether that one drags its final foot.
Let charming Elegy sing of quiver-bearing Loves, and let the light mistress play according to her own will.
Achilles is not to be spoken of in Callimachus' numbers, Cydippe is not of your mouth, Homer.
§383Quis feret Andromaches peragentem Thaida partes?
Who will bear Thais acting the parts of Andromache?
§384Peccet, in Andromache Thaida quisquis agat.
Whoever should act Thais in Andromache would err.
§385Thais in arte mea est; lascivia libera nostra est; §386Nil mihi cum vitta; Thais in arte mea est.
Thais is in my art; our licentiousness is free; I have nothing to do with the headband; Thais is in my art.
If my Muse responds to playful material, we have won, and the accusation of false crime is held guilty.
Burst, greedy Envy: we already have a great name; it will be greater, if only it goes on the same foot with which it began.
But you hasten too much: if only I live, you will grieve more; and my mind contains many poems.
For it pleases, and my zeal for fame has grown with honor; at the beginning of the hill our horse is panting.
Elegies confess that they owe as much to us, as the noble epic owes to Virgil.
Thus far we have answered envy: pull back the reins more tightly, and run, poet, in your own circle.
§399Ergo ubi concubitus et opus iuvenale petetur, §400Et prope promissae tempora noctis erunt, §401Gaudia ne dominae, pleno si corpore sumes, §402Te capiant, ineas quamlibet ante velim; §403Quamlibet invenias, in qua tua prima voluptas §404Desinat: a prima proxima segnis erit.
Therefore when intercourse and youthful work are sought, and the times of the promised night are near, lest the joys of your mistress, if you take them with a full body, captivate you, I would wish that you enter any girl beforehand; find any girl in whom your first pleasure may end: the next one will be sluggish because of the first.
Love-making is most pleasing when deferred; suns after cold, shades after sun are pleasing, and water becomes pleasing to thirst.
I am both ashamed and I will say it: join also in love-making in that position in which you think she is least suited to be joined and which least becomes her.
Nor is it a labor to bring this about: rare women confess the truth to themselves, and there is nothing which they think has not become them.
Then also I command to open all the windows, and to note the ugly limbs when the day is admitted.
§413At simul ad metas venit finita voluptas, §414Lassaque cum tota corpora mente iacent, §415Dum piget, et malis nullam tetigisse puellam, §416Tacturusque tibi non videare diu, §417Tunc animo signa, quaecumque in corpore menda est, §418Luminaque in vitiis illius usque tene.
But as soon as the finished pleasure comes to its goals, and the weary bodies lie together with the whole mind, while it repents you, and you would prefer to have touched no girl, and you do not seem to yourself about to touch one for a long time, then mark in your mind whatever blemish is on her body, and keep your eyes continually on her defects.
§419Forsitan haec aliquis (nam sunt quoque) parva vocabit, §420Sed, quae non prosunt singula, multa iuvant.
Perhaps someone will call these things small (for they are also), but things which do not help individually, help when they are many.
A small viper kills a spacious bull with its bite: a wild boar is often held by a dog that is not large.
Do you fight only with number, and draw your precepts into one: from many there will be a great heap.
But since there are as many dispositions as there are figures, not everything must be granted to my judgments.
By which deed your heart cannot be offended, perhaps this will be an accusation under another's judgment.
§429Ille quod obscenas in aperto corpore partes §430Viderat, in cursu qui fuit, haesit amor: §431Ille quod a Veneris rebus surgente puella §432Vidit in inmundo signa pudenda toro.
That man's love, because he had seen obscene parts on an exposed body while he was in his course, faltered: another's, because he saw shameful signs on the unclean bed as the girl was rising from the matters of Venus.
You are playing, oh you whom those things could move: warm torches had only blown upon your hearts.
Let that boy draw his bent bows more strongly: you wounded crowd will seek greater help.
What of him who lay hidden secretly while the girl was performing obscene things, and saw things which custom itself forbids to see?
§439Di melius, quam nos moneamus talia quemquam!
May the gods grant better things than that we should advise anyone of such things!
§440Ut prosint, non sunt expedienda tamen.
Even if they are useful, they are not to be set forth nonetheless.