THE AMORES; or, AMOURS By Ovid Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes, by Henry T. Riley 1885 BOOK THE FIRST. AN EPIGRAM ON THE AMOURS. |We who of late were five books [001] of Naso, are now but three: this work our author has preferred to the former one. Though it should [002] now be no pleasure to thee to read us; still, the labour will be less, the two being removed. ELEGY I. _He says that he is compelled by Cupid to write of love instead of battles and that the Divinity insists on making each second Hexameter line into a Pentameter._ |I was preparing to write of arms and impetuous warfare in serious numbers, [003] the subject-matter being suited to the measure. [004] The second verse was of equal measure with the first; but Cupid is said to have smiled, and to have abstracted one foot. [005] "Who, cruel boy, has given thee this right over my lines? We poets are the choir of _the Muses,_ the Pierian maids, not thine. What if Venus were to seize the arms of the yellow-haired Minerva, _and_ if the yellow-haired Minerva were to wave the lighted torches _of Love?_ Who would approve of Ceres holding her reign in the woods on the mountain ridges, _or_ of the fields being tilled under the control of the quivered Virgin? Who would arm Phoebus, graceful with his locks, with the sharp spear, while Mars is striking the Aonian lyre? Thy sway, O youth, is great, and far too potent; why, in thy ambition, dost thou attempt a new task? Is that which is everywhere, thine? Is Heliconian Tempe thine? Is even his own lyre hardly safe now for Phoebus? When the new page has made a good beginning in the first line, at that moment does he diminish my energies. [008] I have no subject fitted for _these_ lighter numbers, whether youth, or girl with her flowing locks arranged." _Thus_ was I complaining; when, at once, his quiver loosened, [009] he selected the arrows made for my destruction; and he stoutly bent upon his knee the curving bow, and said, "Poet, receive a subject on which to sing." Ah wretched me! unerring arrows did that youth possess. I burn; and in my heart, _hitherto_ disengaged, does Love hold sway. _Henceforth_, in six feet [010] let my work commence; in five let it close. Farewell, ye ruthless wars, together with your numbers. My Muse, [011] to eleven feet destined to be attuned, bind with the myrtle of the sea shore thy temples encircled with their yellow _locks_. ELEGY II. _He says, that being taken captive by Love, he allows Cupid to lead him away in triumph._