Remedia Amoris; or, The Remedy of Love: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes — John Shaqi
Remedia Amoris; or, The Remedy of Love: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious NotesOvid
General
Remedia Amoris; or, The Remedy of Love: Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes
Ovid
Latin poetry -- Adaptations; Latin poetry -- Translations into English
That thirst, parched by which you are perishing, must be satisfied by
you; I permit it; now may you drink in the midst of the stream. But
drink even more than what your appetite requires; make the water you
have swallowed flow back from your filled throat. Always enjoy the
company of your mistress, no one preventing it; let her occupy your
nights, her your days. Make satiety your object; satiety puts an end to
evils even. And even now, when you think you can do without her, do
you remain with her. Until you have fully cloyed yourself, and satiety
removes your passion, let it not please you to move from the house you
loathe. That love, too, which distrust nurtures, is of long endurance;
should you wish to lay this aside, lay aside your apprehensions. Who
fears that she may not be his own, and that some one may rob him of her,
that person will be hardly curable with the skill of Machaon. Of two
sons, a mother generally loves him the most, for whose return she feels
apprehensions, because he is bearing arms.
There is, near the Collinian [1253] gate, a venerable temple; the lofty
Ervx gave this temple its name. There, is Lethæan Love, who heals the
mind; and in cold water does he place his torches. There, too, in their
prayers, do the youths pray for forgetfulness; and any fair one, if she
has been smitten by an obdurate man. He thus said to me; (I am in doubt
whether it was the real Cupid, or whether a vision; but I think it was a
vision.)
"O Naso, thou who dost sometimes cause, sometimes relieve, the passion
full of anxiety, add this to thy precepts as well. Let each person
recall to mind his own mishaps; let him dismiss love; to all has the
Deity assigned more or less of woes. He that stands in awe of the Puteal [1244] and of Janus, [1245] and of the Calends swiftly coming, let the
borrowed sum of money be his torment. He whose father is harsh, though
other things should prove to his wish, before his eyes must his harsh
father be placed. Another one is living wretchedly with a wife poorly
dowried, let him think that his wife is an obstacle to his fortune. You
have a vineyard, on a generous soil, fruitful in choice grapes; be in
dread lest the shooting grape should be blighted. Another has à ship
on its return home; [1246] let him be always thinking that the sea is
boisterous, and that the sea-shore is polluted by his losses. Let a son
in service [1247] be the torment of one, a marriageable daughter of yourself.
And who is there that has not a thousand causes for anxiety? That,
Paris, thou mightst hate thine own _cause of sorrow_, thou oughtst to
have placed the deaths of thy brothers before thine eyes."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account