The Elegies of Tibullus
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THE ELEGIES OF TIBULLUS
BEING
THE CONSOLATIONS OF A ROMAN LOVER
DONE IN ENGLISH VERSE
BY THEODORE C. WILLIAMS
1908
TO WILLIAM COE COLLAR
HEAD MASTER OF THE
ROXBURY LATIN SCHOOL
Our old master ever young to his old boys:
_Did Mentor with his mantle thee invest,
Or Chiron lend thee his persuasive lyre,
Or Socrates, of pedagogues the best,
Teach thee the harp-strings of a youth's desire?_
PREFACE
Albius Tibullus was a Roman gentleman, whose father fought on Pompey's
side. The precise dates of his birth and death are in doubt, and what we
know of his life is all in his own poems; except that Horace condoles
with him about Glycera, and Apuleius says Delia's real name was Plautia.
Horace paid him this immortal compliment: (_Epist. 4 bk. I_).
"_Albi nostrorum sermonum candide judex,
Non tu corpus eras sine pectore; Di tibi formam,
Di tibi divitias dederant, artemque fruendi_."
After his death, Ovid wrote him a fine elegy (p. 115); and Domitius
Marsus a neat epigram. The former promised him an immortality equal to
Homer's; the latter sent him to Elysium at Virgil's side. These
excessive eulogies are the more remarkable in that Tibullus stood,
proudly or indolently, aloof from the court. He never flatters Augustus
nor mentions his name. He scoffs at riches, glory and war, wanting
nothing but to triumph as a lover. Ovid dares to group him with the
laurelled shades of Catullus and Gallus, of whom the former had
lampooned the divine Julius and the latter had been exiled by Augustus.
But in spite of this contemporary _succes d'estime_, Tibullus is
clearly a minor poet. He expresses only one aspect of his time. His few
themes are oft-repeated and in monotonous rhythms. He sings of nothing
greater than his own lost loves. Yet of Delia, Nemesis and Neaera, we
learn only that all were fair, faithless and venal. For a man whose
ideal of love was life-long fidelity, he was tragically unsuccessful.
If this were all, his verse would have perished with that of Macer and
Gallus. But it is not all. These love-poems of a private gentleman of
the Augustan time, show a delicacy of sentiment almost modern. Of the
ribald curses which Catullus hurls after his departing Lesbia, there is
nothing. He throws the blame on others: and if, just to frighten, he
describes the wretched old age of the girls who never were faithful, it
is with a playful tone and hoping such bad luck will never befall any
sweet-heart of his. This delicacy and tenderness, with the playful
accent, are, perhaps, Tibullus' distinctive charm.
His popularity in 18th century France was very great. The current
English version, Grainger's (1755) with its cheap verse and common-place
gallantries, is a stupid echo of the French feeling for Tibullus as an
erotic poet. Much better is the witty prose version by the elder
Mirabeau, done during the Terror, in the prison at Vincennes, and
published after his release, with a ravishing portrait of "Sophie,"
surrounded by Cupids and billing doves. One of the old Parisian editors
dared to say:
"_Tons ceux qui aiment, ou qui ont jamais aime, savent par coeur ce
delicieux Tibulle_."
But it was unjust to classify Tibullus merely as an erotic poet. The
gallants of the _ancien regime_ were quite capable of writing their
own valentines. Tibullus was popular as a sort of Latin Rousseau. He
satirized rank, riches and glory as corrupting man's primitive
simplicity. He pled for a return to nature, to country-side, thatched
cottages, ploughed fields, flocks, harvests, vintages and rustic
holidays. He made this plea, not with an armoury of Greek learning, such
as cumber Virgil and Horace, but with an original passion. He cannot
speak of the jewelled Roman coquettes without a sigh for those happy
times when Phoebus himself tended cattle and lived on curds and whey,
all for the love of a king's daughter.
For our own generation Tibullus has another claim to notice. All
Augustan writers express their dread and weariness of war. But Tibullus
protests as a survivor of the lost cause. He has been, himself, a
soldier-lover maddened by separation. As an heir of the old order, he
saw how vulgar and mercenary was this _parvenu_ imperial glory, won
at the expense of lost liberties and broken hearts. War, he says, is
only the strife of robbers. Its motive is the spoils. It happens because
beautiful women want emeralds, Indian slaves and glimmering silk from
Cos. Therefore, of course, we fight. But if Neaera and her kind would
eat acorns, as of old, we could burn the navies and build cities without
walls.
He was indeed a minor poet. He does not carry forward, like Virgil, the
whole heritage from the Greeks, or rise like him to idealizing the
master-passion of his own age, that vision of a cosmopolitan
world-state, centred at Rome and based upon eternal decrees of Fate and
Jove. But neither was he duped, as Virgil was, into mistaking the
blood-bought empire of the Caesars for the return of Saturn's reign.
Sometimes a minor poet, just by reason of his aloofness from the social
trend of his time, may also escape its limitations, and sound some notes
which remain forever true to what is unchanging in the human heart. I
believe Tibullus has done so.
This translation has been done in the play-time of many busy years. I
have used what few helps I could find, especially the Mirabeau, above
alluded to. The text is often doubtful. But in so rambling a writer it
has not seemed to me that the laborious transpositions of later German
editors were important. I have rejected as probably spurious all of the
fourth book but two short pieces. While I agree with those who find the
third book doubtful, I have included it.
But from scholars I must ask indulgence. I have translated with
latitude, considering whole phrases rather than single words. But I have
always been faithful to the thought and spirit of the original, except
in the few passages where euphemism was required. If the reader who has
no Latin, gets a pleasing impression of Tibullus, that is what I have
chiefly hoped to do. In my forth-coming translations of the
_Aeneid_ I have kept stricter watch upon verbal accuracy, as is due
to an author better-known and more to be revered.
THEODORE C. WILLIAMS.
New York, 1905.
CONTENTS
Preface
BOOK I
I. The Simple Life
II. Love and Witchcraft
III. Sickness and Absence
IV. The Art of Conquest
V. Country-Life with Delia
VI. A Lover's Curses
VII. A Desperate Expedient
VIII. Messala
IX. To Pholoe and Marathus
X. To Venal Beauty
XI. War is a Crime
BOOK II
I. A Rustic Holiday
II. A Birthday Wish
III. My Lady Rusticates
IV. On His Lady's Avarice
V. The Priesthood of Apollo
VI. Let Lovers All Enlist
VII. A Voice from the Tomb
[Transcriber's Note: Elegy VII listed in Contents, but not in text.]
BOOK III
I. The New-Year's Gift
II. He Died for Love
III. Riches are Useless
IV. A Dream from Phoebus
V. To Friends at the Baths
VI. A Fare-Well Toast
BOOK IV
XIII. A Lover's Oath
_Ovid's Lament for Tibullus' Death_
BOOK I
ELEGY THE FIRST
THE SIMPLE LIFE
Give, if thou wilt, for gold a life of toil!
Let endless acres claim thy care!
While sounds of war thy fearful slumbers spoil,
And far-off trumpets scare!
To me my poverty brings tranquil hours;
My lowly hearth-stone cheerly shines;
My modest garden bears me fruit and flowers,
And plenteous native wines.
I set my tender vines with timely skill,
Or pluck large apples from the bough;
Or goad my lazy steers to work my will,
Or guide my own rude plough.
Full tenderly upon my breast I bear
A lamb or small kid gone astray;
And yearly worship with my swains prepare,
The shepherd's ancient way.
I love those rude shrines in a lonely field
Where rustic faith the god reveres,
Or flower-crowned cross-road mile-stones, half concealed
By gifts of travellers.
Whatever fruit the kindly seasons show,
Due tribute to our gods I pour;
O'er Ceres' brows the tasseled wheat I throw,
Or wreathe her temple door.
My plenteous orchards fear no pelf or harm,
By red Priapus sentinelled;
By his huge sickle's formidable charm
The bird thieves are dispelled.
With offerings at my hearth, and faithful fires,
My Lares I revere: not now
As when with greater gifts my wealthier sires
Performed the hallowing vow.
No herds have I like theirs: I only bring
One white lamb from my little fold,
While my few bondmen at the altar sing
Our harvest anthems old.
Gods of my hearth! ye never learned to slight
A poor man's gift. My bowls of clay
To ye are hallowed by the cleansing rite,
The best, most ancient way.
If from my sheep the thief, the wolf, be driven,
If fatter flocks allure them more,
To me the riches to my fathers given
Kind Heaven need not restore.
My small, sure crop contents me; and the storm
That pelts my thatch breaks not my rest,
While to my heart I clasp the beauteous form
Of her it loves the best.
My simple cot brings such secure repose,
When so companioned I can lie,
That winds of winter and the whirling snows
Sing me soft lullaby.
This lot be mine! I envy not their gold
Who rove the furious ocean foam:
A frugal life will all my pleasures hold,
If love be mine, and home.
Enough I travel, if I steal away
To sleep at noon-tide by the flow
Of some cool stream. Could India's jewels pay
For longer absence? No!
Let great Messala vanquish land and sea,
And deck with spoils his golden hall!
I am myself a conquest, and must be
My Delia's captive thrall.
Be Delia mine, and Fame may flout and scorn,
Or brand me with the sluggard's name!
With cheerful hands I'll plant my upland corn,
And live to laugh at Fame.
If I might hold my Delia to my side,
The bare ground were a happier bed
Than theirs who, on a couch of silken pride,
Must mourn for love long dead.
Gilt couch, soft down, slow fountains murmuring song--
These bring no peace. Befooled by words
Was he who, when in love a victor strong,
Left it for spoils and swords.
For such let sad Cilicia's captives bleed,
Her citadels his legions hold!
And let him stride his swift, triumphal steed,
In silvered robes or gold!
These eyes of mine would look on only thee
In that last hour when light shall fail.
Embrace me, dear, in death! Let thy hand be
In my cold fingers pale!
With thine own arms my lifeless body lay
On that cold couch so soon on fire!
Give thy last kisses to my grateful clay,
And weep beside my pyre!
And weep! Ah, me! Thy heart will wear no steel
Nor be stone-cold that rueful day:
Thy faithful grief may all true lovers feel
Nor tearless turn away!
Yet ask I not that thou shouldst vex my shade
With cheek all wan and blighted brow:
But, O, to-day be love's full tribute paid,
While the swift Fates allow.
Soon Death, with shadow-mantled head, will come,
Soon palsied age will creep our way,
Bidding love's flatteries at last be dumb,
Unfit for old and gray.
But light-winged Venus still is smiling fair:
By night or noon we heed her call;
To pound on midnight doors I still may dare,
Or brave for love a brawl.
I am a soldier and a captain good
In love's campaign, and calmly yield
To all who hunger after wounds and blood,
War's trumpet-echoing field.
Ye toils and triumphs unto glory dear!
Ye riches home from conquest borne!
If my small fields their wonted harvest bear,
Both wealth and want I scorn!
ELEGY THE SECOND
LOVE AND WITCHCRAFT
Bring larger bowls and give my sorrows wine,
By heaviest slumbers be my brain possessed!
Soothe my sad brows with Bacchus' gift divine,
Nor wake me while my hapless passions rest!
For Delia's jealous master at her door
Has set a watch, and bolts it with stern steel.
May wintry tempests strike it o'er and o'er,
And amorous Jove crash through with thunder-peal!
My sighs alone, O Door, should pierce thee through,
Or backward upon soundless hinges turn.
The curses my mad rhymes upon thee threw,--
Forgive them!--Ah! in my own breast they burn!
May I not move thee to remember now
How oft, dear Door, thou wert love's place of prayer?
While with fond kiss and supplicating vow,
I hung thee o'er with many a garland fair?
In vain the prayer! Thine own resolve must break
Thy prison, Delia, and its guards evade.
Bid them defiance for thy lover's sake!
Be bold! The brave bring Venus to their aid.
'Tis Venus guides a youth through doors unknown;
'Tis taught of her, a maid with firm-set lips
Steals from her soft couch, silent and alone,
And noiseless to her tryst securely trips.
Her art it is, if with a husband near,
A lady darts a love-lorn look and smile
To one more blest; but languid sloth and fear
Receive not Venus' perfect gift of guile.
Trust Venus, too, t' avert the wretched wrath
Of footpad, hungry for thy robe and ring!
So safe and sacred is a lover's path,
That common caution to the winds we fling.
Oft-times I fail the wintry frost to feel,
And drenching rains unheeded round me pour,
If Delia comes at last with mute appeal,
And, finger on her lip, throws wide the door.
Away those lamps! Thou, man or maid, away!
Great Venus wills not that her gifts be scanned.
Ask me no names! Walk lightly there, I pray!
Hold back thy tell-tale torch and curious hand!
Yet fear not! Should some slave our loves behold,
Let him look on, and at his liking stare!
Hereafter not a whisper shall be told;
By all the gods our innocence he'll swear.
Or should one such from prudent silence swerve
The chatterer who prates of me and thee
Shall learn, too late, why Venus, whom I serve,
Was born of blood upon a storm-swept sea.
Nay, even thy husband will believe no ill.
All this a wondrous witch did tell me true:
One who can guide the stars to work her will,
Or turn a torrent's course her task to do.
Her spells call forth pale spectres from their graves,
And charm bare bones from smoking pyres away:
'Mid trooping ghosts with fearful shriek she raves,
Then sprinkles with new milk, and holds at bay.
She has the power to scatter tempests rude,
And snows in summer at her whisper fall;
The horrid simples by Medea brewed
Are hers; she holds the hounds of Hell in thrall.
For me a charm this potent witch did weave;
Thrice if thou sing, then speak with spittings three,
Thy husband not one witness will believe,
Nor his own eyes, if our embrace they see!
But tempt not others! He will surely spy
All else--to me, me only, magic-blind!
And, hark! the hag with drugs, she said, would try
To heal love's madness and my heart unbind.
One cloudless night, with smoky torch, she burned
Black victims to her gods of sorcery;
Yet asked I not love's loss, but love returned,
And would not wish for life, if robbed of thee.
ELEGY THE THIRD
SICKNESS AND ABSENCE
Am I abandoned? Does Messala sweep
Yon wide Aegean wave, not any more
He, nor my mates, remembering where I weep,
Struck down by fever on this alien shore?
Spare me, dark death! I have no mother here,
To clasp my relics to her widowed breast;
No sister, to pour forth with hallowing tear
Assyrian incense where my ashes rest.
Nor Delia, who, before she said adieu,
Asked omens fair at every potent shrine.
Thrice did the ministrants give blessings true,
The thrice-cast lot returned the lucky sign.
All promised safe return; but she had fears
And doubting sorrows, which implored my stay;
While I, though all was ready, dried her tears,
And found fresh pretext for one more delay.
An evil bird, I cried, did near me flit,
Or luckless portent thrust my plans aside;
Or Saturn's day, unhallowed and unfit,
Forbade a journey from my Delia's side.
Full oft, when starting on the fatal track,
My stumbling feet foretold unhappy hours:
Ah! he who journeys when love calls him back,
Should know he disobeys celestial powers!
Help me, great Goddess! For thy healing power
The votive tablets on thy shrine display.
See Delia there outwatch the midnight hour,
Sitting, white-stoled, until the dawn of day!
Each day her tresses twice she doth unbind,
And sings, the loveliest of the Pharian band.
O that my fathers' gods this prayer could find!
Gods of my hearth and of my native land!
How happily men lived when Saturn reigned!
Ere weary highways crossed the fair young world,
Ere lofty ships the purple seas disdained,
Their swelling canvas to the winds unfurled!
No roving seaman, from a distant course,
Filled full of far-fetched wares his frail ship's hold:
At home, the strong bull stood unyoked; the horse
Endured no bridle in the age of gold.
Men's houses had no doors? No firm-set rock
Marked field from field by niggard masters held.
The very oaks ran honey; the mild flock
Brought home its swelling udders, uncompelled.
Nor wrath nor war did that blest kingdom know;
No craft was taught in old Saturnian time,
By which the frowning smith, with blow on blow,
Could forge the furious sword and so much crime.
Now Jove is king! Now have we carnage foul,
And wreckful seas, and countless ways to die.
Nay! spare me, Father Jove, for on my soul
Nor perjury, nor words blaspheming lie.
If longer life I ask of Fate in vain,
O'er my frail dust this superscription be:--
_"Here Death's dark hand_ TIBULLUS _doth detain,
Messala's follower over land and sea!"_
Then, since my soul to love did always yield,
Let Venus guide it the immortal way,
Where dance and song fill all th' Elysian field,
And music that will never die away.
There many a song-bird with his fellow sails,
And cheerly carols on the cloudless air;
Each grove breathes incense; all the happy vales
O'er-run with roses, numberless and fair.
Bright bands of youth with tender maidens stray,
Led by the love-god all delights to share;
And each fond lover death once snatched away
Winds an immortal myrtle in his hair.
Far, far from such, the dreadful realms of gloom
By those black streams of Hades circled round,
Where viper-tressed, fierce ministers of doom,--
The Furies drive lost souls from bound to bound.
The doors of brass, and dragon-gate of Hell,
Grim Cerberus guards, and frights the phantoms back:
Ixion, who by Juno's beauty fell,
Gives his frail body to the whirling rack.
Stretched o'er nine roods, lies Tityos accursed,
The vulture at his vitals feeding slow;
There Tantalus, whose bitter, burning thirst
The fleeting waters madden as they flow.
There Danaus' daughters Venus' anger feel,
Filling their urns at Lethe all in vain;--
_And there's the wretch who would my Delia steal,
And wish me absent on a long campaign!_
O chaste and true! In thy still house shall sit
The careful crone who guards thy virtuous bed;
She tells thee tales, and when the lamps are lit,
Reels from her distaff the unending thread.
Some evening, after tasks too closely plied,
My Delia, drowsing near the harmless dame,
All sweet surprise, will find me at her side,
Unheralded, as if from heaven I came.
Then to my arms, in lovely disarray,
With welcome kiss, thy darling feet will fly!
O happy dream and prayer! O blissful day!
What golden dawn, at last, shall bring thee nigh?
ELEGY THE FOURTH
THE ARTS OF CONQUEST
"Safe in the shelter of thy garden-bower,
"Priapus, from the harm of suns or snows,
"With beard all shag, and hair that wildly flows,--
"O say! o'er beauteous youth whence comes thy power?
"Naked thou frontest wintry nights and days,
"Naked, no less, to Sirius' burning rays."
So did my song implore the rustic son
Of Bacchus, by his moon-shaped sickle known.
"Comply with beauty's lightest wish," said he,
"Complying love leads best to victory.
"Nor let a furious 'No' thy bosom pain;
"Beauty but slowly can endure a chain.
"Slow Time the rage of lions will o'er-sway,
"And bid them fawn on man. Rough rocks and rude
"In gentle streams Time smoothly wears away;
"And on the vine-clad hills by sunshine wooed,
"The purpling grapes feel Time's secure control;
"In Time, the skies themselves new stars unroll.
"Fear not great oaths! Love's broken oaths are borne
"Unharmed of heaven o'er every wind and wave.
"Jove is most mild; and he himself hath sworn
"There is no force in vows which lovers rave.
"Falsely by Dian's arrows boldly swear!
"And perjure thee by chaste Minerva's hair!
"Be a prompt wooer, if thou wouldst be wise:
"Time is in flight, and never backward flies.
"How swiftly fades the bloom, the vernal green!
"How swift yon poplar dims its silver sheen!
"Spurning the goal th' Olympian courser flies,
"Then yields to Time his strength, his victories;
"And oft I see sad, fading youth deplore
"Each hour it lost, each pleasure it forbore.
"Serpents each spring look young once more; harsh Heaven
"To beauteous youth has one brief season given.
"With never-fading youth stern Fate endows
"Phoebus and Bacchus only, and allows
"Full-clustering ringlets on their lovely brows.
"Keep at thy loved one's side, though hour by hour
"The path runs on; though Summer's parching star
"Burn all the fields, or blackest tempests lower,
"Or monitory rainbows threaten far.
"If he would hasten o'er the purple sea,
"Thyself the helmsman or the oarsman be.
"Endure, unmurmuring, each unwelcome toil,
"Nor fear thy unaccustomed hands to spoil.
"If to the hills he goes with huntsman's snare,
"Let thine own back the nets and burden bear.
"Swords would he have? Fence lightly when you meet;
"Expose thy body and compel defeat.
"He will be gracious then, and will not spurn
"Caresses to receive, resist, return.
"He will protest, relent, and half-conspire,
"And later, all unasked, thy love desire.
"But nay! In these vile times thy skill is vain.
"Beauty and youth are sold for golden gain.
"May he who first taught love to sell and buy,
"In grave accurst, with all his riches lie!
"O beauteous youth, how will ye dare to slight
"The Muse, to whom Pierian streams belong?
"Will ye not smile on poets, and delight,
"More than all golden gifts, in gift of song?
"Did not some song empurple Nisus' hair,
"And bid young Pelops' ivory shoulder glow?
"That youth the Muses praise, is he not fair,
"Long as the stars shall shine or waters flow ?
"But he who scorns the Muse, and will for gain
"Surrender his base heart,--let his foul cries
"Pursue the Corybants' infuriate train,
"Through all the cities of the Phrygian plain,--
"Unmanned forever, in foul Phrygian guise!
"But Venus blesses lovers who endear
"Love's quest alone by flattery, by fear,
"By supplication, plaint, and piteous tear."
Such song the god of gardens bade me sing
For Titius; but his fond wife would fling
Such counsel to the winds: "Beware," she cried,
"Trust not fair youth too far. For each one's pride
"Offers alluring charms: one loves to ride
"A gallant horse, and rein him firmly in;
"One cleaves the calm wave with white shoulder bare;
"One is all courage, and for this looks fair;
"And one's pure, blushing cheeks thy praises win."
Let him obey her! But my precepts wise
Are meant for all whom youthful beauty's eyes
Turn from in scorn. Let each his glory boast!
Mine is, that lovers, when despairing most,
My clients should be called. For them my door
Stands hospitably open evermore.
Philosopher to Venus I shall be,
And throngs of studious youth will learn of me.
Alas! alas! How love has been my bane!
My cunning fails, and all my arts are vain.
Have mercy, fair one, lest my pupils all
Mock me, who point a path in which I fall!
ELEGY THE FIFTH
COUNTRY-LIFE WITH DELIA
With haughty frown I swore I could employ
Thine absence well. But all my pride is o'er!
Now am I lashed, as when a madcap boy
Whirls a swift top along the level floor.
Aye! Twist me! Plague me! Never shall I say
Such boast again. Thy scorn and anger spare!
Spare me!--by all our stolen loves I pray,
By Venus,--by thy wealth of plaited hair!
Was it not I, when fever laid thee low,
Whose holy rites and offerings set thee free?
Thrice round thy bed with brimstone did I go,
While the wise witch sang healing charms for thee.
Lest evil dreams should vex thee, I did bring
That worshipped wafer by the Vestal given;
Then, with loose robes and linen stole, did sing
Nine prayers to Hecate 'neath the midnight heaven.
