Book IV, Epigram 30 (Ker)

From Baiae's lake, fisherman, I warn thee, fly afar, lest with guilt thou depart! These waters swim with hallowed fish, that know their lord, and fondle that hand greater than anything on earth. Aye, do they not bear his name, and at its master's voice does not each when summoned come? While aforetime an impious Libyan was drawing up out of this deep his prey with tremulous line, his eyes were snatched from him, and in sudden blindness he could not see the taken fish, and now, loathing his sacrilegious hooks, he sits by Baiae's lake a beggar. But do thou, while thou canst, depart yet innocent when thou hast cast into the water guileless bait, and revere these dainty fish.