Humanitext Reader

Ovid · Sorrows §5.11.1-5.11.30

Defense of His Wife and Clarification of His Sentence

Passage 57 of 60 · Latin

Summary

Ovid responds to his wife's distress at being called "an exile's wife," explaining that his punishment is actually the milder "relegatio" rather than "exilium," and praises Caesar's leniency while warning his detractor not to worsen his plight with a false label.

§5.11.1Quod te nescioquis per iurgia dixerit esse §5.11.2exulis uxorem, littera questa tua est.
Your letter complained that someone or other, in the course of a quarrel, had called you the wife of an exile.
§5.11.3indolui, non tam mea quod fortuna male audit, §5.11.4qui iam consuevi fortiter esse miser, §5.11.5quam quod cui minime vellem, sum causa pudoris, §5.11.6teque reor nostris erubuisse malis.
I grieved, not so much because my fortune is spoken ill of—I who have already become accustomed to being wretched courageously— as because I am the cause of shame to one whom least of all I would wish to be so, and I think that you have blushed at our misfortunes.
§5.11.7perfer et obdura; multo graviora tulisti, §5.11.8eripuit cum me principis ira tibi.
Endure and be firm; you have borne much heavier things when the prince's anger snatched me away from you.
§5.11.9fallitur iste tamen, quo iudice nominor exul: §5.11.10mollior est culpam poena secuta meam.
Yet that man is mistaken, in whose judgment I am named an exile: a milder punishment followed my fault.
§5.11.11maxima poena mihi est ipsum offendisse, priusque §5.11.12venisset mallem funeris hora mihi.
The greatest punishment for me is to have offended him himself, and I would have preferred that the hour of death had come to me before.
§5.11.13quassa tamen nostra est, non mersa nec obruta navis, §5.11.14utque caret portu, sic tamen extat aquis.
Yet our ship has been shattered, not sunk nor overwhelmed; and though it lacks a harbor, yet it stands out from the waters.
§5.11.15nec vitam nec opes nec ius mihi civis ademit, §5.11.16qui merui vitio perdere cuncta meo.
He did not take away from me life, nor wealth, nor the rights of a citizen— I who deserved to lose all things by my own fault.
§5.11.17sed quia peccato facinus non affuit illi, §5.11.18nil nisi me patriis iussit abesse focis,
But because wickedness was not present in that sin, he ordered me to do nothing except be absent from my ancestral hearths.
§5.11.19utque aliis, quorum numerum comprendere non est, §5.11.20Caesareum numen sic mihi mite fuit.
And as to others, whose number it is not possible to grasp, so to me Caesar's divinity was mild.
§5.11.21ipse relegati, non exulis utitur in me §5.11.22nomine.
He himself uses towards me the name of a banished man, not of an exile.
tuta suo iudice causa mea est.
My cause is safe with its own judge.
§5.11.23iure igitur laudes. Caesar, pro parte virili §5.11.24carmina nostra tuas qualiacumque canunt: §5.11.25iure deos, ut adhuc caeli tibi limina claudant, §5.11.26teque velint sine se, comprecor, esse deum.
Justly, therefore, Caesar, my poems, such as they are, sing your praises to the best of my ability: justly do I pray the gods that they may still close the thresholds of heaven to you, and wish that you should be a god without them.
§5.11.27optat idem populus; sed, ut in mare flumina vastum, §5.11.28sic solet exiguae currere rivus aquae,
The people wish the same; but, as rivers run into the vast sea, so a stream of scanty water is accustomed to run.
§5.11.29at tu fortunam, cuius vocor exul ab ore, §5.11.30nomine mendaci parce gravare meam!
But you, from whose mouth I am called an exile, spare to weigh down my fortune with a lying name!

Notes

  1. 5.11.1Quod te nescioquis ... dixerit esse — The quod-clause introduces an explanatory or causal noun clause clarifying the content of "littera questa tua est". The verb "dixerit" is in the perfect subjunctive, indicating a reported allegation or subjective statement by another party.
  2. 5.11.3male audit — The phrase "male audire" (literally "to hear badly") is a well-established Latin idiom meaning "to have a bad reputation" or "to be spoken ill of", corresponding to the Greek expression "kakos akouein".
  3. 5.11.5cui minime vellem — The dative antecedent "ei" for the relative pronoun "cui" is omitted. "vellem" is an imperfect subjunctive expressing a potential or polite, soft wish ("to whom I would least of all wish [to be a cause of shame]").
  4. 5.11.9quo iudice — An ablative absolute construction consisting of a pronoun and a noun ("with him being the judge" or "by whose judgment"), expressing the attendant circumstance under which Ovid is called an exile.
  5. 5.11.12mallem — An independent potential or unfulfilled past wish in the imperfect subjunctive ("I would have preferred"). The dependent verb "venisset" is in the pluperfect subjunctive, indicating a past counterfactual condition.
  6. 5.11.18nil nisi me ... abesse iussit — The restrictive phrase "nil nisi" ("nothing except/only") modifies the accusative with infinitive clause "me... abesse". The sentence means "he ordered me to do nothing other than be away from my ancestral hearths."
  7. 5.11.19non est — The verb "est" is used with an infinitive ("comprendere") to mean "it is possible" ("non licet / non potest"), a poetic and literary usage influenced by the Greek "estin" + infinitive construction.
  8. 5.11.26sine se ... esse deum — The reflexive pronoun "se" in "sine se" refers to the subject of the main clause, "deos" (the gods). "To be a god without them" implies that Caesar should remain on earth as a living god, delaying his ascent to heaven (which would imply his death).

Cite this passage

Ovid, Sorrows §5.11.1-5.11.30. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:latinLit:phi0959.phi008.humanitext-lat2:5.11.1-5.11.30

Please note the AI-draft status of the translation and the date accessed.

Translation, notes and summary are AI-generated drafts, revised through reader feedback.