Love
Book III, Elegy 14: Before her Birthday (Postgate)
Translated by J. P. Postgate (Loeb, 1913) · From Elegies (Loeb, 1913)
My hated birthday is at hand, to be kept all joylessly in the odious country and without Cerinthus. What is more pleasant than the town ? Would a grange be fit place for a girl, or the chill river of Arretium and its fields ? Rest now, Messalla, from thy excessive zeal for me. Journeys, my kinsman, are oft ill-timed. They take me away, but here I leave my soul and heart, since force forbids my living mistress of myself.
This translation is printed as prose in its source edition.
Codex Note
Attributed to Sulpicia, from the Corpus Tibullianum; numbered III. 14 (IV. 8) in this volume.
Cite this poem
MLA
Tibullus (Albius Tibullus). “Book III, Elegy 14: Before her Birthday (Postgate).” Translated by J. P. Postgate. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/tibullus/53/.
Chicago
Tibullus (Albius Tibullus). “Book III, Elegy 14: Before her Birthday (Postgate).” Translated by J. P. Postgate. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/tibullus/53/.
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