Ars Amatoria; or, The Art Of Love: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes — John Shaqi
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
Besides; when, of late, [734] Cæsar, on the representation of a rival
fight, introduced [735] the Persian and Athenian ships; in truth, from
both seas came youths, from both came the fair; and in the City was the
whole of the great world. Who, in that throng, did not find an object
for him to love? How many, alas! did a foreign flame torment? See! Cæsar
prepares [736] to add what was wanting to the world subdued; now, remote
East, our own shalt thou be! Parthian, thou shalt give satisfaction;
entombed Crassi, rejoice; [737] ye standards, too, that disgracefully
submitted to barbarian hands. Your avenger is at hand, and proves
himself a general in his earliest years; and, while a boy, is conducting
a war not fitted to be waged by a boy. Cease, in your fears, to count
the birth-days of the Gods: [738] valour is the lot of the Cæsars, in
advance of their years. The divine genius rises more rapidly than its
years, and brooks not the evils of slow delay. The Tirynthian hero was
a baby, and he crushed two serpents in his hands; even in his cradle he
was already worthy of Jove. Bacchus, who even now art a boy, how mighty
wast thou then, when conquered India dreaded thy thyrsi! With the
auspices and the courage of thy sire, thou, Youth, shalt wield arms; and
with the courage and the auspices of thy sire shalt thou conquer. Such
first lessons are thy due, under a name so great; now the first of the
youths, [739] at a future day to be the first of the men. Since thou
hast brothers, [740] avenge thy brethren slain; and since thou hast
a sire, [741] vindicate the rights of thy sire. He, the father of thy
country and thine own, hath put thee in arms; the enemy is tearing
realms away from thy reluctant sire. Thou wilt wield the weapons of
duty, the foe arrows accursed; before thy standard, Justice and Duty
will take their post. By the badness of their cause, the Parthians are
conquered; in arms, too, may they be overcome; may my hero add to Latium
the wealth of the East. Both thou, father Mars, and thou, father Cæsar,
grant your divine favour as he sets out; for the one of you is now a
Deity, thou, the other, wilt so be.
What, Parthian, dost thou leave to the conquered, who dost fly that thou
mayst overcome? Parthian, even now has thy mode of warfare an unhappy
omen. And will that day then come, on which thou, the most graceful
of all objects, glittering with gold, shalt go, drawn by the four
snow-white steeds? Before thee shall walk the chiefs, their necks laden
with chains; that they may no longer, as formerly, be secure in flight.
The joyous youths, and the mingled fair, shall be looking on; and that
day shall gladden the minds of all. And when some one of the fair shall
enquire the names of the Monarchs, what places, what mountains, or what
rivers are borne in the procession; answer to it all; and not only
if she shall make any inquiry; even what you know not, relate, as though
known perfectly well. *
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