Book III, Elegy 23

So then my tablets, my learned tablets are lost, and with them many a gracious writing too is lost. Long usage at my hands had worn them down and bade them be believed without the warrant of a seal. They knew how to appease my loves, though I was not by, and, though I was not by, could speak in words of eloquence. No golden fittings made them precious; they were only dingy wax on common boxwood. Yet poor though they were, they were ever faithful to me and ever won deserved success. Sometimes, it may be, these were the words entrusted to their care: "I am angry, because thou didst tarry yestereve, thou sluggard. Didst thou deem thou hadst found a fairer love? Or dost thou spread some vile slander against me?" Or perchance she said: "Thou wilt come to-day and we will take our ease together: Love has made ready a welcome for thee all night long." These bare they, and all the words a chattering girl delights to find, when she appoints an hour for the stealthy joys of love. Alas! and now some greedy merchant writes his bill upon them and places them among his terrible ledgers! If any will return them to me he shall have gold for his reward: who would keep hard blocks of wood when he might have wealth for them? Go, boy, and with all speed set forth these lines upon some pillar, and write that thy master dwells upon the Esquiline.