Ars Amatoria; or, The Art Of Love: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious NotesOvid
General
Ars Amatoria; or, The Art Of Love: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes
Ovid
Latin poetry -- Adaptations; Latin poetry -- Translations into English
Deceive, if you are wise, the fair alone with Impunity; for this one
piece of deceit only is good faith to be disregarded. Deceive the
deceivers; in a great measure they are all a guilty race; let them
fall into the toils which they have spread. Egypt is said to have been
without showers that refresh the fields: and to have been parched during
nine years. When Thrasius went to Busiris, [805] and showed that Jupiter
could be propitiated by shedding the blood of strangers; to him Busiris
said, "Thou shalt become the first sacrifice to Jove, and, a stranger,
thou shalt produce rain for Egypt." Phalaris, too, burnt in the bull the
limbs of the cruel Perillus; the unhappy inventor was the first to make
proof of his work. Each of them was just; and, indeed, no law is there
more righteous, than that the contrivers of death should perish by their
own contrivances. Therefore, since perjuries with justice impose upon
the perjured, let woman grieve, deceived through a precedent her own.
Tears, too, are of utility: by tears you will move adamant. Make her,
if you can, to see your moistened cheeks. If tears shall fail you, for
indeed they do not always come in time, touch your eyes with your wet
hand. What discreet person would not mingle kisses with tender words?
Though she should not grant them; still take them ungranted. Perhaps she
will struggle at first, and will say, "You naughty man!" still, in her
struggling, she will wish to be overcome. Only, let them not, rudely
snatched, hurt her tender lips, and take care that she may not be able
to complain that they have proved a cause of pain. He who has gained
kisses, if he cannot gain the rest as well, will deserve to lose even
that which has been granted him. How much is there wanting for unlimited
enjoyment after a kiss! Oh shocking! 'twere _downright_ clownishness,
and not modesty. Call it violence, if you like; such violence is
pleasing to the fair; they often wish, through compulsion, to grant what
they are delighted _to grant_. Whatever fair one has been despoiled by
the sudden violence of passion, she is delighted at it; and the chief is
as good as a godsend. But she, who, when she might have been carried
by storm, has escaped untouched, though, in her features, she should
pretend gladness, will _really_ be sorry. Phoebe suffered [806]
violence; to her sister was violence offered; and pleasing was either
ravisher to the ravished. The damsel of Scyros being united to the
Hæmonian hero, is a well-known story indeed, but not unworthy to be
related.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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