This is the sixth summer being spent by me on the Cimmerian shore, which must be spent among the pelt-clad Getae.
My dearest Albinovanus, what flints, what iron do you compare to my endurance?
A drop hollows a stone, a ring is consumed by use, the curved plowshare is worn away by the pressed earth.
Therefore, devouring time destroys all things except me: even death, conquered by my toughness, ceases.
Odysseus is an example of an overly patient mind, tossed upon the doubtful sea for two lustra.
But yet he did not endure all times of an anxious fate, and there were often peaceful delays.
Or was it heavy to have cherished beautiful Calypso for six years, and to have lain with the sea-goddess?
§4.10.15excipit Hippotades, qui dat pro munere ventos, §4.10.16curvet ut inpulsos utilis aura sinus,
The son of Hippotes receives him, who gives winds as a gift, so that a useful breeze might curve the driven sails.
Nor is it a labor to hear girls singing beautifully, and the lotus was not bitter to him who tasted it.
These juices, which cause forgetfulness of one's fatherland, I would buy with a part of my life, if only they were given.
§4.10.21nec tu contuleris urbem Laestrygonos umquam §4.10.22gentibus, obliqua quas obit Hister aqua.
Nor should you ever compare the city of the Laestrygonian to the tribes which the Hister bypasses with its slanting water.
§4.10.23nec vincet Cyclops saevum feritate Piacchen.
Nor will the Cyclops surpass the savage Piacches in ferocity.
§4.10.24qui quota terroris pars solet esse mei!
Who is but what a small fraction of my terror!
§4.10.25Scylla feris trunco quod latret ab inguine monstris, §4.10.26Heniochae nautis plus nocuere rates,
Though Scylla barks with wild monsters from her lopped groin, the ships of the Heniochi have caused more harm to sailors.
§4.10.27nec potes infestis conferre Charybdin Achaeis, §4.10.28ter licet epotum ter vomat illa fretum, §4.10.29qui quamquam dextra regione licentius errant, §4.10.30securum latus hoc non tamen esse sinunt,
Nor can you compare Charybdis to the hostile Achaeans, though three times she swallows and three times she spews out the flood, who, although they wander more freely in the right-hand region, yet do not allow this side to be secure.
§4.10.31hic agri infrondes, hic spicula tincta venenis, §4.10.32hic freta vel pediti pervia reddit hiems, §4.10.33ut, qua remus iter pulsis modo fecerat undis, §4.10.34siccus contempta nave viator eat.
Here the fields are leafless, here the darts are stained with poisons, here winter renders the seas passable even for a pedestrian, so that where the oar had just made its way by striking the waves, the dry traveler goes, despising the ship.
§4.10.35qui veniunt istinc, vix vos ea credere dicunt, §4.10.36quam miser est, qui fert asperiora fide!
Those who come from there say that you scarcely believe these things; how wretched is he who endures things harsher than belief!
§4.10.37crede tamen; nec te causas nescire sinemus, §4.10.38horrida Sarmaticum cur mare duret hiems,
Believe it, however; nor shall we allow you to be ignorant of the causes why the dreadful winter hardens the Sarmatian sea.
§4.10.39proxima sunt nobis plaustri praebentia formam §4.10.40et quae praecipuum sidera frigus habent.
Dearest to us are the stars that present the shape of a wagon and which possess the greatest cold.
From here Boreas arises, and he is domestic to this coast, and takes his strength from a closer place.
§4.10.43at Notus, adverso tepidum qui spirat ab axe, §4.10.44est procul et rarus languidiorque venit.
But Notus, who breathes warm from the opposite pole, is far away and rare, and comes more languidly.
§4.10.45adde quod hic clauso miscentur flumina Ponto, §4.10.46vimque fretum multo perdit ab amne suam.
Add that here rivers mingle in the enclosed Pontus, and the sea loses its strength from the much river-water.
§4.10.47huc Lycus, huc Sugaris Peniusque Hypanisque Calesque §4.10.48influit et crebro vertice tortus Halys, §4.10.49Partheniusque rapax, et volvens saxa Cynapses §4.10.50labitur, et nullo tardior amne Tyras, §4.10.51et tu, femineae Thermodon cognite turmae, §4.10.52et quondam Graiis Phasi petite viris, §4.10.53cumque Borysthenio liquidissimus amne Dyrapses §4.10.54et tacite peragens lene Melanthus iter, §4.10.55quique duas terras, Asiam Cadmique sororem, §4.10.56separat et cursus inter utramque facit, §4.10.57innumerique alii, quos inter maximus omnes §4.10.58cedere Danuvius se tibi, Nile, negat,
Hither Lycus, hither Sagaris and Peneus and Hypanis and Cales flow, and Halys twisted with frequent eddies, and rapid Parthenius, and Cynapses rolling stones glides, and Tyras slower than no river, and you, Thermodon, known for the feminine troop, and Phasis, once sought by Grecian men, and very clear Dyrapses with the Borysthenian river, and Melanthus quietly completing his gentle journey, and he who separates two lands, Asia and Cadmus' sister, and makes his course between both, and countless others, among all of whom the greatest, the Danube, denies that he yields to you, O Nile.
§4.10.59copia tot laticum, quas auget, adulterat undas, §4.10.60nec patitur vires aequor habere suas.
The abundance of so many waters alters the waves which it increases, and does not suffer the sea to have its own strength.
Nay even, like a pool and a sluggish swamp, its dark blue color is scarcely there and is diluted.
§4.10.63innatat unda freto dulcis, leviorque marina est, §4.10.64quae proprium mixto de sale pondus habet.
The sweet wave floats upon the sea, and is lighter than the marine wave, which has its own weight from the mixed salt.
§4.10.65si roget haec aliquis cur sint narrata Pedoni, §4.10.66quidve loqui certis iuverit ista modis, §4.10.67detinui dicam curas tempusque fefelli.
If anyone should ask why these things have been told to Pedo, or what it has helped to speak those things in certain measures, I will say that I held back my cares and beguiled the time.
§4.10.68hunc fructum praesens attulit hora mihi.
The present hour brought this fruit to me.
While I write these things, I was away from my usual grief, and I did not feel myself to be in the midst of the Getae.
§4.10.71at tu, non dubito, cum Thesea carmine laudes, §4.10.72materiae titulos quin tueare tuae, §4.10.73quemque refers, imitere virum, vetat ille profecto §4.10.74tranquilli comitem temporis esse fidem.
But you, I do not doubt, when you praise Theseus in song, protect the titles of your material, and imitate the man whom you relate; he certainly forbids fidelity to be a companion only of tranquil times.
§4.10.75qui quamquam est factis ingens et conditur a te §4.10.76vir tanto quanto debuit ore cani, §4.10.77est tamen ex illo nobis imitabile quiddam, §4.10.78inque fide Theseus quilibet esse potest.
Who, although he is great in deeds and is celebrated by you as a man who ought to be sung with so great a voice, is yet in some part imitable by us, and in fidelity anyone can be a Theseus.
§4.10.79non tibi sunt hostes ferro clavaque domandi, §4.10.80per quos vix ulli pervius Isthmos erat: §4.10.81sed praestandus amor, res non operosa volenti.
You do not have enemies to subdue with sword and club, through whom the Isthmus was scarcely passable for anyone: but love is to be shown, a thing not laborious to one who wishes.
§4.10.82quis labor est puram non temerasse fidem?
What labor is it not to have violated pure fidelity?