Social Commentaries
Book I, Epigram 86 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
Novius is my neighbour, and can be touched by the hand from my windows. Who would not envy me, and think me every hour of the day happy in being able to enjoy so close a comrade? He is as far from me as Terentianus who now governs Syene on the Nile. I can't dine with him, nor even see him or hear him, and in all the city there is no man who is so near and yet so far from me. I must shift farther, or he must. You should be Novius's neighbour, or fellow-lodger, if you don't wish to see Novius.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book I, Epigram 86 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/422/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book I, Epigram 86 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/422/.
Read this poem with the Codex →