Book II, Elegy 3

Thou, that didst boast that nought could harm thee more, art caught in the snare: thy proud spirit has fallen. Scarce, poor wretch, canst thou find rest for a single month, and now a second book of shame shall tell of thy doings. I was as one that seeks whether a fish may live on the dry sands, or a fierce wild boar in the midst of unfamiliar waves, when I tried if I could pass the night in sterner studies. Love is but put off, extinguished never.

'Twas not her face, bright though it be, that won me. Lilies would not surpass my mistress for whiteness; 'tis as though Maeotic snows were to strive with Spanish vermilion, or rose-leaves floated amid stainless milk. 'Twas not her hair flowing trimly o'er her smooth neck, 'twas not the twin torches of her eyes, my lodestars, nor a girl shining in Arabian silks: not for such trifles as these am I a gallant lover! 'Tis rather that at the revel's close she dances wondrously, even as Ariadne led the Maenad dance; 'tis rather that when she essays to sing to the Aeolian lyre she rivals the harp of Aganippe in her skill to play, and challenges with her verse the writings of ancient Corinna, and counts not Erinna's songs the equals of her own.

My life, did not bright Love sneeze a shrill omen at thine hour of birth, when day first dawned for thee? These heavenly gifts the gods, the gods bestowed, for I would not have thee think that 'twas thy mother gave them. Such boons no human parentage can confer, those charms ne'er sprang from mortal womb. Thou and thou only wast born to be the glory of Roman maids; thou shalt be the first maid of Rome to lie with Jove, nor shalt thou forever in our midst visit mortal couches. Helen wore this beauty once, and now 'tis come to earth again with thee.

For thee then that our youth should burn, why should I wonder now? Better, O Troy, to have perished for Cynthia's sake. Of old I wondered that a girl should have been the cause of so mighty a conflict before the citadel of Troy, where Europe and Asia met in war. Now, Paris, I hold that thou, and thou, Menelaus, wert wise, thou that thou didst demand, thou that thou wert slow to reply. Worthy in sooth was such a face, that for it even Achilles should face death; even Priam could not but approve such cause for strife. If any desire to surpass the fame of all ancient pictures, let him take my mistress as model for his art; if he show her to the peoples of the West or to the peoples of the East, he will set the East and set the West afire.

These bounds at least let me never more out-step! Or if I do, let another passion smite me, if such there be, that shall burn me with keener agony. As at first the ox refuses the plough, yet at length becomes familiar to the yoke and goes quietly to the fields, so do proud youths fret in the first ecstasy of love, then, calmer grown, bear good and ill alike. Melampus the seer endured dishonouring fetters, convicted of having stolen the kine of Iphiclus: yet 'twas not gain, but rather the fair face of Pero compelled him, Pero soon to be a bride in the halls of Amythaon.