Humanitext Reader

Ovid · Sorrows §3.13.1-3.13.28

Lament and Reproach to Birthday in Exile

Passage 34 of 60 · Latin

Summary

On his birthday, the poet addresses his personified Birthday (Natalis), bitterly asking why it pursued him to his place of exile, and laments that he cannot celebrate in his current misery, begging it never to return.

§3.13.1Ecce supervacuus—quid enim fuit utile gigni?— §3.13.2ad sua Natalis tempora noster adest, §3.13.3dure, quid ad miseros veniebas exulis annos?
Behold, a superfluous thing—for what use was it to be born?— our Birthday arrives at his own time, harsh one, why did you come to the miserable years of an exile?
§3.13.4debueras illis inposuisse modum.
You ought to have put an end to them.
§3.13.5si tibi cura mei, vel si pudor ullus inesset, §3.13.6non ultra patriam me sequerere meam, §3.13.7quoque loco primum tibi sum male cognitus infans, §3.13.8illo temptasses ultimus esse mihi, §3.13.9inque relinquendo, quod idem fecere sodales, §3.13.10tu quoque dixisses tristis in urbe vale.
If you had any care for me, or if there were any shame in you, you would not follow me beyond my fatherland, and in the place where first I was known to you as an ill-omened infant, you should have tried to be my last in that very place, and in abandoning me, which same thing my companions did, you too, sad, should have said 'farewell' in the city.
§3.13.11quid tibi cum Ponto? num te quoque Caesaris ira
What have you to do with Pontus?
§3.13.12extremam gelidi misit in orbis humum?
Surely the anger of Caesar has not sent you too to the remotest soil of a frozen world?
§3.13.13scilicet expectas soliti tibi moris honorem, §3.13.14pendeat ex umeris vestis ut alba meis, §3.13.15fumida cingatur florentibus ara coronis, §3.13.16micaque sollemni turis in igne sonet, §3.13.17libaque dem proprie genitale notantia tempus, §3.13.18concipiamque bonas ore favente preces.
Doubtless you expect the honor of your customary ritual, that a white robe should hang from my shoulders, that the smoking altar be girt with flowering wreaths, and a grain of incense crackle in the solemn fire, and that I should offer cakes marking specifically the time of birth, and conceive auspicious prayers with a favoring tongue.
§3.13.19non ita sum positus, nec sunt ea tempora nobis, §3.13.20adventu possim laetus ut esse tuo.
I am not so situated, nor are these times for us, that I could be glad at your arrival.
§3.13.21funeris ara mihi, ferali cincta cupressu, §3.13.22convenit et structis flamma parata rogis.
An altar of death, girt with funereal cypress, suits me, and the flame made ready on the built pyre.
§3.13.23nec dare tura libet nil exorantia divos, §3.13.24in tantis subeunt nec bona verba malis.
Nor does it please me to offer incense that entreats the gods for nothing, nor in such great evils do auspicious words come to mind.
§3.13.25si tamen est aliquid nobis hac luce petendum, §3.13.26in loca ne redeas amplius ista, precor, §3.13.27dum me terrarum pars paene novissima. Pontus, §3.13.28Euxinus falso nomine dictus, habet.
Yet if something must be sought by us on this day, do not return to these places anymore, I pray, while the almost remotest part of the lands, Pontus, called Euxinus by a false name, holds me.

Notes

  1. §3.13.4debueras illis inposuisse modum — The pluperfect indicative debueras expresses a past obligation that was not fulfilled ("you ought to have..."), used rhetorically in the indicative instead of the subjunctive. illis refers to the miseros exulis annos of the preceding line, and modum inponere means "to impose a limit" or "to put an end to."
  2. §3.13.5cura mei — The genitive form of the personal pronoun ego, mei, functions as an objective genitive with the noun cura ("care for me").
  3. §3.13.11quid tibi cum Ponto? — An idiomatic interrogative expression with the dative of possession (tibi), with the verb (usually est) omitted. It means "What have you to do with Pontus?"

Cite this passage

Ovid, Sorrows §3.13.1-3.13.28. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi008.humanitext-lat2:3.13.1-3.13.28

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