Yet once thy Sappho could thy cares employ,
Once in her arms you center'd all your joy:
No time the dear remembrance can remove,
For oh; how vaft a memory has love?
My Mufic, then, you could for ever hear,
And all my words were music to your ear.
You stopp'd with kiffes my enchanting tongue,
And found my kiffes fweeter than my fong.
In all I pleas'd, but most in what was beft;
And the last joy was rer than the reft.
Then with each word, each glance, each motion fir'd,
You ftill enjoy'd, and yet you ftill defir`d,
'ill all diffolving in the trance we lay,
And in tumultuous raptures dy'd away.
The fair Sicilians now thy foul inflame;
Why was I born, ye Gods! a Lesbian dame?
But ah, beware, Sicilian nymphs! nor boat
That wand'ring heart which I fo lately loft ;
Nor be with all thofe tempting words abus'd,
Those tempting words were all to Sappho us'd.
Cantabam, memini (meminerunt omnia amantes)
Ofcula cantanti tu mihi rapta dabas.
Haec quoque laudabas: omnique a parte placebam,
Sed tum praecipue, cum fit amoris opus.
Tunc te plus folito lascivia nostra juvabat,
Crebraque mobilitas, aptaque verba joco;
Quique, ubi jam amborum fuerat confufa voluptas,
Plurimus in laffo corpore languor erat.
Nunc tibi Sicelides veniunt nova praeda puellae;
Quid mihi cum Lefbo? Sicelis effe volo.
At vos erronem tellure remittite noftrum,
Nifiades matres, Nifiadefque nurus.
Neu vos decipiant blandae mendacia linguae:
Quae dicit vobis, dixerat ante mihi.
And you that rule Sicilia's happy plains,
Have pity, Venus, on your poet's pains!
Shall fortune fill in one fad tenor run,
And ftill increase the woes fo foon begun?
Inur'd to ferrow from my tender years,
My parent's afhes drank my early tears:
My brother next, neglecting wealth and fame,
Ignobly burn'd in a deftructive flame:
An infant daughter late my griefs increas'd,
And all a mother's cares diftract my breast.
Alas, what more could fate itself impose,
But thee, the laft and greatest of my woes?
No more my robes in waving purple flow,
Nor'on my hand the sparkling di'monds glow;
No more my locks in ring lets curl'd diffuse
The cofly fweetnefs of Arabian dews,
Tu quoque quae montes celebras, Erycina, Sicanos,
(Nam tua fum) vati confule, diva, tuae.
An gravis inceptum peragit fortuna tenorem?
Et manet in curfu femper acerba fuo ?
Sex mihi natales ierant, cum lecta parentis
Ante diem lacrymas offa bibere meas.
Arfit inops frater, victus meretricis amore;
Miftaque cum turpi damna pudore tulit.
Faus inops agili peragit freta coerula remò :
Quafque male amifit, nunc male quaerit opes:
Me quoque, quod monui bene multa fideliter, odit.
Hoc mihi libertas, hoc pia lingua dedit.
Et tanquam defint, quae me fine fine fatigent,
Accumulat curas filia parva meas.
Ultima tu noftris accedis caufa querelis:
Non agitur vento noftra carina fuo.
Ecce jacent collo fparfi fine lege capilli;
Nec premit articulos lucida gemma meos.
Nor braids of gold the varied treffes bind,
That fly diforder'd with the wanton wind:
For whom should sappho ufe fuch arts as these?
He's gone, whom only fhe defir'd to please!
Cupid's light darts my tender bofom move,
Still is there cause for Sappho still to love:
So from my birth the Sifters fix'd my doom,
And gave to Venus all my life to come;
Or, while my Mufe in melting notes complains,
My yielding heart keeps meafure to my ftrains.
By charms like thine which all my foul have won, 95.
Who might not
ah! who would not be undone ?
For thofe Aurora Cephalus might fcorn,
And with fresh blushes paint the conscious morn.
For those might Cynthia lengthen Phaon's fleep,
And bid Endymion nightly tend his sheep.
Venus for thofe had rapt thee to the skies,
But Mars on thee might look with Venus' eyes.
Velle tegor vili: nullum eft in crinibus aurum :
Non Arabo nofter rore capillus olet.
Cui colar infelix? aut cui placuiffe laborem ?
Ille mihi cultûs unicus auctor abeft.
Molle meum levibus cor est violabile telis ;
Et femper caufa eft, cur ego femper amem.
Sive ita nafcenti legem dixere forores,
Et data funt vitae fila fevera meae;
Sive abeunt ftudia in mores, artefque magiftrae, ingenium nobis molle Thalia facit.
Quid mirum, fi me primae lanuginis aetas
Abftulit, atque anni, quos vir amare poteft?
Hunc ne pro Cephalo raperes, Aurora, timebam:
Et faceres; fed te prima rapina tenet.
Hunc fi confpiciat, quae confpicit omnia, Phoebe;
Juffus erit fomnos continuare Phaon.
Hunc Venus in coelum curru vexiffet eburno;
Sed videt et Marti poffe placere fuo.
O fcarce a youth, yet scarce a tender boy!
O ufeful 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 least the love you will not give.
See, while I write, my words are loft in tears!
The lefs my fenfe, 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.
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 abortis :
Afpice, quam fit in hoc multa litura loco.
Si tam certus eras hinc ire, modeftius îffes,
Et modo dixiffes: Lefbi puella, vale.
Non tecum lacrymas, non ofcula fumma 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.
Now by the Nine, those 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 flood,
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 paffion found,
I rend my treffes, and my breaft I wound;
I rave, then weep; I curfe, and then complain ;
Now fwell to rage, now melt in tears again.
Not fiercer pangs distract 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.
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 :
Aftrictum gelido frigore pectus erat.
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 nostro crescit moerore Charaxus
Frater; et ante oculos itque reditque meos.
Utque pudenda mei videatur caufa doloris ;
Quid dolet haec ? certe filia vivit, ait.
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