|
VII.
Why weep for him whom sweet Favonian airs
Will waft next spring, Asteria, back to you,
Rich with Bithynia's wares,
A lover fond and true,
Your Gyges? He, detain'd by stormy stress
At Oricum, about the Goat-star's rise,
Cold, wakeful, comfortless,
The long night weeping lies.
Meantime his lovesick hostess' messenger
Talks of the flames that waste poor Chloe's heart
(Flames lit for you, not her!)
With a besieger's art;
Shows how a treacherous woman's lying breath
Once on a time on trustful Proetus won
To doom to early death
Too chaste Bellerophon;
Warns him of Peleus' peril, all but slain
For virtuous scorn of fair Hippolyta,
And tells again each tale
That e'er led heart astray.
In vain; for deafer than Icarian seas
He hears, untainted yet. But, lady fair,
What if Enipeus please
Your listless eye? beware!
Though true it be that none with surer seat
O'er Mars's grassy turf is seen to ride,
Nor any swims so fleet
Adown the Tuscan tide,
Yet keep each evening door and window barr'd;
Look not abroad when music strikes up shrill,
And though he call you hard,
Remain obdurate still.
[Latin names for the constellations]
|
Quid Fles, Asterie.
Quid fles, Asterie, quem tibi candidi
primo restituent uere Fauonii
Thyna merce beatum,
constantis iuuenem fide
Gygen? Ille Notis actus ad Oricum 5
post insana Caprae sidera frigidas
noctes non sine multis
insomnis lacrimis agit.
Atqui sollicitae nuntius hospitae,
suspirare Chloen et miseram tuis 10
dicens ignibus uri,
temptat mille uafer modis.
Vt Proetum mulier perfida credulum
falsis inpulerit criminibus nimis
casto Bellerophontae 15
maturare necem, refert;
narrat paene datum Pelea Tartaro,
Magnessam Hippolyten dum fugit abstinens,
et peccare docentis
fallax historias monet. 20
Frustra: nam scopulis surdior Icari
uocis audit adhuc integer. At tibi
ne uicinus Enipeus
plus iusto placeat caue;
quamuis non alius flectere equum sciens 25
aeque conspicitur gramine Martio,
nec quisquam citus aeque
Tusco denatat alueo,
prima nocte domum claude neque in uias
sub cantu querulae despice tibiae 30
et te saepe uocanti
duram difficilis mane.
|
