Already my declining age is sprinkled with gray hair, and already a senile wrinkle plows my face.
Already vigor and strength languish in my shaken body, nor do the games that pleased me as a youth delight me.
Nor, if you should see me suddenly, would you be able to recognize me, so great has been the ruin of my age.
I confess that years do this, but there is also another cause, anxiety of mind and continuous toil.
For if anyone should distribute my evils over long years, believe me, I will be older than Pylian Nestor.
You see how in hard fields—and what is stronger than an ox?— toil breaks the strong bodies of bulls.
§1.4.13quae numquam vacuo solita est cessare novali, §1.4.14fructibus assiduis lassa senescit humus.
The soil, which is never accustomed to rest in fallow land, grows old, tired by continuous crops.
§1.4.15occidet, ad Circi siquis certamina semper §1.4.16non intermissis cursibus ibit equus, §1.4.17firma sit illa licet, solvetur in aequore navis, §1.4.18quae numquam liquidis sicca carebit aquis.
Any horse will fall if it always goes to the contests of the Circus with uninterrupted races, though it be strong, a ship will break up in the sea, which, never dry, is never free from the flowing waters.
§1.4.19me quoque debilitat series inmensa malorum, §1.4.20ante meum tempus cogit et esse senem, §1.4.21otia corpus alunt, animus quoque pascitur illis: §1.4.22immodicus contra carpit utrumque labor,
Me too an immense series of misfortunes weakens, and forces me to be an old man before my time, leisure nurtures the body, the mind too is fed by it: excessive toil, on the contrary, consumes both.
§1.4.23aspice, in has partis quod venerit Aesone natus, §1.4.24quam laudem a sera posteritate ferat.
Look, because the son of Aeson came to these parts, what praise he bears from late posterity.
§1.4.25at labor illius nostro leviorque minorque est, §1.4.26si modo non verum nomina magna premunt, §1.4.27ille est in Pontum Pelia mittente profectus, §1.4.28qui vix Thessaliae fine timendus erat.
Yet his toil is both lighter and less than ours, if only great names do not suppress the truth, he set out for Pontus at Pelias' sending, who was scarcely to be feared at the border of Thessaly.
Caesar's anger harmed me, whom from the rising of the sun to the setting of the sun each land dreads.
§1.4.31iunctior Haemonia est Ponto, quam Roma, Sinistro, §1.4.32et brevius, quam nos, ille peregit iter.
Haemonia is closer to the Left Pontus than Rome is, and he completed a shorter journey than we did.
He had the chief comrades of the Achæan land; but everyone abandoned my flight.
We plowed the vast sea in fragile wood: the ship that carried the son of Aeson was a stout vessel.
§1.4.37nec mihi Tiphys erat rector, nec Agenore natus §1.4.38quas fugerem docuit quas sequererque vias.
Nor had I Tiphys as helmsman, nor did the son of Agenor teach me what paths to avoid and what to follow.
§1.4.39illum tutata est cum Pallade regia Iuno: §1.4.40defendere meum numina nulla caput, §1.4.41illum furtivae iuvere Cupidinis artes; §1.4.42quas a me vellem non didicisset Amor.
Royal Juno with Pallas protected him: no divine powers defended my head, the stealthy arts of Cupido helped him— arts which I wish Amor had not learned from me.
He returned home; we shall die in these fields, if the heavy wrath of the offended god persists.
Therefore, most faithful wife, our task is harder than that which the son of Aeson underwent.
§1.4.47te quoque, quam iuvenem discedens urbe reliqui, §1.4.48credibile est nostris insenuisse malis, §1.4.49o, ego di faciant talem te cernere possim, §1.4.50caraque mutatis oscula ferre comis, §1.4.51amplectique meis corpus non pingue lacertis, §1.4.52et
gracile hoc fecit dicere
cura mei, §1.4.53‘et narrare meos flenti flens ipse labores, §1.4.54sperato numquam conloquioque frui, §1.4.55turaque Caesaribus cum coniuge Caesare digna, §1.4.56dis veris, memori debita ferre manu!
It is believable that you too, whom I left as a young woman when departing from the city, have grown old through my misfortunes, oh, may the gods grant that I may see you such, and bring dear kisses to your changed hair, and embrace with my arms your body no longer plump, and say, "Care for me made this slender," and weeping myself, narrate my labors to you weeping, and enjoy the conversation never hoped for, and bring the due incense to the Caesars, who are true gods, with a wife worthy of Caesar, with a mindful hand!