O nec adhuc juvenis, nec jam puer! utilis aetas!
O decus, atque aevi gloria magna tui !
Huc ades, inque finus, formofe, relabere noftros: 105
Non ut ames oro, verum ut amare finas.
Scribimus, et lacrymis oculi rorantur obortis :
Afpice, quam fit in hoc multa litura loco.
Si tam certus eras hinc ire, modeftius îffes,
Et modo dixiffes: Lesbi puella, vale.
Non tecum lacrymas, non ofcula summa tulisti;
Denique non timui, quod dolitura fui.
Nil de te mecum eft, nifi tantum injuria: nec tu,
Admoneat quod te, pignus amantis habes.
Non mandata dedi; neque enim mandata dediffem
Ulla, nifi ut nolles immemor effe mei.
Per tibi, qui nunquam longe difcedat, Amorem,
Perque novem juro, numina noftra, Deas;
Cum mihi nefcio quis, Fugiunt tua gaudia, dixit;
Nec me flere diu, nec potuiffe loqui;
Et lacrymae deerant oculis, et lingua palato:
Aftri&tum gelido frigore pectus erat.
O fcarce a youth, yet scarce a tender boy!
O useful time for lovers to employ !
Pride of thy age, and glory of thy race,
Come to these arms, and melt in this embrace!
The vows you never will return receive;
And take at leaft the love you will not give.
See, while I write, my words are loft in tears;
The less my sense, the more my love appears.
Sure 'twas not much to bid one kind adieu,
(At least to feign was never hard to you)
Farewell my Lesbian Love, you might have faid,
Or coldly thus, Farewell, oh Lesbian maid!
No tear did you, no parting kifs receive,
Nor knew I then how much I was to grieve.
No lover's gift your Sappho could confer,
And wrongs and woes were all you left with her.
No charge I gave you, and no charge could give,
But this, Be mindful of our loves and live.
Now by the Nine, thofe pow'rs ador'd by me,
And Love, the God that ever waits on thee,
When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew)
That you were fled, and all my joys with you,
Like fome fad ftatue, fpeechlefs, pale I stood,
Grief chill'd my breast, and stopp'd my freezing blood;
No figh to rife, no tear had pow'r to flow,
Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of woe:
But when its way th`impetuous paflion found,
I rend treffes and
my
Poftquam fe dolor invenit; nec pectora plangi,
Nec puduit fciffis exululare comis:
Non aliter quam fi nati pia mater adempti
Portet ad extructos corpus inane rogos.
Gaudet et e noftro crefcit moerore Charaxus
Frater; et ante oculos itque reditque meos.
Utque pudenda mei videatur caufa doloris ;
Quid dolet haec; certe filia vivit, ait.
Non veniunt in idem pudor atque amor: omne vide
Vulgus; eram lacero pectus aperta finu.
Tu mihi cura, Phaon: te fomnia nostra reducunt;
Somnia formofo candidiora die.
Illic te invenio, quanquam regionibus abfis;
Sed non longa fatis gaudia fomnus habet.
Saepe tuos noftra cervice onerare lacertos,
Saepe tuae videor fuppofuiffe meos.
Blandior interdum; verifque fimillima verba
Eloquor; et vigilant fenfibus ora meis.
Ofcula cognofco; quae tu committere linguae,
Aptaque confuêras accipere, apta dare.
Ulteriora pudet narrare; fed omnia fiunt,
Et juvat, et fine te non libet effe mihi.
At cum fe Titan oftendit, et omnia fecum ;
Tam cito me fomnos deftituiffe queror.
I rave, then weep, I curfe, and then complain;
Now fwell to rage, now melt in tears again.
Not fiercer pangs diftract the mournful dame,
Whose first-born infant feeds the fun'ral flame.
My scornful brother with a smile appears,
Infults my woes, and triumphs in my tears,
His hated image ever haunts my eyes;
And why this grief? thy daughter lives, he cries.
Stung with my love and furious with despair,
All torn my garments, and my bofom bare,
My woes thy crimes, I to the world proclaim:
Such inconfiftent things are love and fhame!
'Tis thou art all my care and my delight,
My daily longing, and my dream by night:
Oh night more pleafing than the brightest day, 145
When fancy gives what abfence takes away,
And, drefs'd in all its vifionary charms,
Reftores my fair deferter to my arms!
Then round your neck in wanton wreaths I twine,
Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine:
A thousand tender words I hear and speak;
A thousand melting kiffes, give, and take:
Then fiercer joys, I blush to mention these,
Yet while I blush, confess how much they please.
But when, with day, the sweet delufions fly,
And all things wake to life and joy, but I,
As if once more forfaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again :
Antra nemufque peto, tanquam nemus antraque pro
Confcia deliciis illa fuere tuis.
Illuc mentis inops, ut quam furialis Erichtho
Impulit, in collo crine jacente feror.
Antra vident oculi fcabro pendentia topho,
Quae mihi Mygdonii marmoris instar erant.
Invenio fylvam, quae faepe cubilia nobis
Praebuit, et multa texit opaca coma.
At non invenio dominum fylvaeque, meumque.
Vile folum locus eft: dos erat ille loci.
Agnovi preffas noti mihi cefpitis herbas:
De noftro curvum pondere gramen erat.
Incubui, tetigique locum qua parte fuisti;
Grata prius lacrymas combibit herba meas.
Quinetiam rami pofitis lugere videntur
Frondibus; et nullae dulce queruntur aves.
Sola virum non ulta pie moeftiffima mater
Concinit Ifmarium Daulias ales Ityn.
Ales Ityn, Sappho defertos cantat amores :
Hactenus, ut media caetera nocte filent.
Eft nitidus, vitroque magis perlucidus omni,
Fons facer; hunc multi numen habere putant.
Quem fupra ramos expandit aquatica lotos,
Una nemus; tenero cefpite terra viret.
Hic ego cum laffos pofuiffem fletibus artus,
Conftitit ante oculos Naïas una meos.
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