T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
To Lydia
By Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus) (65–8 B.C.)(Ode XIII. Book I; translated by Sir Theodore Martin, 1881) |
LYDIA, when so oft the charms | |
| Of Telephus you bid me note, | |
| Taunt me with his snowy arms, | |
| Rosy cheek, and shapely throat, | |
| Within my breast I feel the fires | 5 |
| Of wild and desperate desires. | |
| Then reels my brain, then on my cheek | |
| The shifting colour comes and goes, | |
| And tears, that flow unbidden, speak | |
| The torture of my inward throes, | 10 |
| The fierce unrest, the deathless flame, | |
| That slowly macerates my frame. | |
| Oh agony! to trace where he | |
| Has smutched thy shoulders ivory-white | |
| Amid his tipsy revelry; | 15 |
| Or where, in trance of fierce delight, | |
| Upon thy lips the frenzied boy | |
| Has left the records of his joy. | |
| Hope not such love can last for aye | |
| (But thou art deaf to words of mine!) | 20 |
| Such selfish love, as ruthlessly | |
| Could wound those kisses all divine, | |
| Which Venus steeps in sweets intense | |
| Of her own nectar’s quintessence. | |
| Oh, trebly blest, and blest for ever, | 25 |
| Are they, whom true affection binds, | |
| No cold distrusts nor janglings sever | |
| The union of their constant minds, | |
| But life in blended current flows, | |
| Serene and sunny to the close! | 30 |