Social Commentaries
Book X, Epigram 74 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
At length spare, O Rome, the weary congratulator, the weary client! How long, at levees, among the escort and the full-dressed throng, shall I earn a hundred worthless farthings in a wliole day, whereas in a single hour, Scorpus, a winner of the race, bears off fifteen bags of gleaming gold .'' I would not as reward for my little books — for what do they deserve? — wish for Apulian plains; nor does Hybla or corn-bearing Nile allure me, nor the dainty Setine grape which from the hill's crest looks on the Pomptine marshes. Do you ask, then, what long for? To sleep.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book X, Epigram 74 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/1236/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book X, Epigram 74 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/1236/.
Read this poem with the Codex →