TRANSLATION
All translations are my own creation
Poem 1
Tandem venit amor, qualem texisse pudori
quam nudasse alicui sit mihi fama magis.
Exorata meis illum Cytherea Camenis
attulit in nostrum deposuitque sinum.
Exsolvit promissa Venus: mea gaudia narret,
dicetur si quis non habuisse sua.
Non ego signatis quicquam mandare tabellis,
ne legat id nemo quam meus ante, velim.
Sed peccasse iuvat, vultus componere famae
taedet: cum digno digna fuisse ferar.
At last love came, the sort of love which the
rumor being covered up is more shameful to me than to be played bare to someone else.
Venus having been called up by my Muses brought
him and laid him in my lap.
Venus delivered a promise: she tells my joys,
if it said that anyone does not have their own.
I would not want to send any of my sealed letters
so that nobody reads it before my boyfriend.
But it is beneficial to do wrong, as it is wearying to compose my
face to rumor: let be said it to have been a worthy pairing.
Poem 2
Invisus natalis adest, qui rure molesto
et sine Cerintho tristis agendus erit.
Dulcius urbe quid est? an villa sit apta puellae
atque Arretino frigidus amnis agro?
Iam nimium Messalla mei studiose, quiescas,
non tempestivae, saeve propinque, viae!
Hic animum sensusque meos abducta relinquo,
arbitrio quamvis non sinis esse meo.
My hated birthday is here, which sadly must be
spent in the annoying countryside without Cerinthus.
What is sweeter than the city? Is a country house or the cold river in the fields of Arretium suitable for a girl?
Now Messalla who is too anxious over me, stop,
fierce guardian it's not the right time for the road!
Having been abducted, I relinquish my mind and my senses here,
although you do not allow me to be my own judgement.
Poem 3
Scis iter ex animo sublatum triste puellae?
natali Romae iam licet esse suo.
Omnibus ille dies nobis natalis agatur,
qui nec opinanti nunc tibi forte venit.
Did you know the sad journey has been taken off of the mind of
your girl?
now she is allowed to be in Rome for her birthday.
That birthday can be done with all of us,
which came by chance to you not unexpectedly.
Poem 4
Gratum est, securus multum quod iam tibi de me
permittis, subito ne male inepta cadam.
Sit tibi cura togae potior pressumque quasillo
scortum quam Servi filia Sulpicia:
Solliciti sunt pro nobis, quibus illa dolori est,
ne cedam ignoto, maxima causa, toro.
Is it pleasing, that you are so secure of my feelings that you
leave me, lest suddenly I fall stupidly and ineptly for you.
Let that toga-wearing prostitute having been pressed by a wool basket
be a care to you more than Sulpicia, daughter of Servius:
Before they are worried for us, that woman is a pain for us,
lest I came in second to an obscure bed.
Poem 5
Estne tibi, Cerinthe, tuae pia cura puellae,
quod mea nunc vexat corpora fessa calor?
A! ego non aliter tristes evincere morbos
optarim, quam te si quoque velle putem.
At mihi quid prosit morbos evincere, si tu
nostra potes lento pectore ferre mala?
Is there a thoughtful care by you, Cerinthus, for your girl
because now a fever ravages my tired body?
Ah! I would not choose to conquer sad diseases
in another way, than if I thought that you also wished it.
But what use is it for me to drive out diseases, if you
can endure our bad things with a flexible heart?
Poem 6
Ne tibi sim, mea lux, aeque iam fervida cura
ac videor paucos ante fuisse dies,
si quicquam tota commisi stulta iuventa,
cuius me fatear paenituisse magis,
hesterna quam te solum quod nocte reliqui,
ardorem cupiens dissimulare meum.
Let me not be a burning care for you equally now, my light
as I seemed to have been a few days before,
if I have stupidly brought about anything in my whole youth
which I confess that I regret more than anything,
Yesterday night how in what manner I left you alone
desiring to disguise my love.