Social Commentaries
Book IV, Epigram 29 (Ker)
Translated by Walter C. A. Ker (1919–20) · From Epigrams (Loeb, 1919–20)
Dear Pudens, their very number hampers my poems, and volume after volume wearies and sates the reader. Rare things please one; so greater charm belongs to early apples, so winter roses win value; so her pride commends a mistress who pillages you, and a door always open holds fast no lover. Oftener Persius wins credit in a single book than trivial Marsus in his whole Amazonid. Do you, too, whatever of my books you read again, think that it is the only one: so 'twill be to you of fuller worth.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Cite this poem
MLA
Martial. “Book IV, Epigram 29 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/661/.
Chicago
Martial. “Book IV, Epigram 29 (Ker).” Translated by Walter C. A. Ker. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/martial/661/.
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