Translated by Jena Woodhouse.
Tandem venit amor…
Sulpicia, 1st century AD
Now love has finally come,
it would be the better part of valour
to keep it obscure, veiling the heart
in pudency, confiding in no-one.
Cythera has conspired with the Muses
to endow our ardent embrace;
Venus has honoured all her promises.
Grant those bereft of such joys
the vicarious pleasure of telling them,
but I forbear to entrust them
to wax and clay, lest others learn
my tidings before my beloved.
How sweet it is to err, how dull to observe
propriety. Better appear to the world
as a woman of substance, who has been seen
with another of high esteem.
Tandem venit amor, qualem texisse pudori
quam nudasse alicui sit mihi fama magis.
Exorata meis illum Cytherea Camenis
attulit in nostrum depositque 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.
(freely translated from the Latin)
Invisus natalis adest…
Sulpicia, 1st century AD
Wretched day of my birth,
I shall greet you sadly,
buried alive in some village,
parted from Cerinthus.
What can be more delightful
than the city? What kind of place
for a girl is a villa, by a cold river
in Arretine fields?
Messalla, you tiresome old watchdog,
will you ever have done with nagging?
Journeys are not always timely!
Even though you may take me away,
you will never dictate to my spirit.
Invisus natalis adest, qui rure molesto
et sine Cerintho tristis agendus erit.
Dulcius urbe quid est? an villa sit apta puellae
atque Arretini 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.
(freely translated from the Latin)
Gratum est…
Sulpicia, 1st century AD
How fortunate, though you may trifle with me,
that I eschew both madness and revenge.
You— to whom a toga or wool-gathering wench
mean more than Sulpicia, Servius’s daughter—
spare a thought for those whose greatest sorrow it would be
to see me sullied by a cheap affair.
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.
(freely translated from the Latin)
Scis iter ex animo…
Sulpicia, 1st century AD
Have you heard? That journey’s burden
has been lifted from the girl’s sad heart.
I delight in the prospect
of spending my birthday in Rome.
Let us all celebrate the occasion,
which comes as a boon, a surprise,
to you, who was least expecting it.
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.
(freely translated from the Latin)
Ne tibi sim, mea lux…
Sulpicia, 1st century AD
Light of my life, let me not give you
further cause for offence,
as I have done so mindlessly of late.
Among my many blunders, I confess (foolish girl),
the one I shall most bitterly regret
is that last night I ran away— deserted you,
in panic that I might betray my passion.
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.
(freely translated from the Latin)
Estne tibi, Cerinthe…
Sulpicia, 1st century AD
Cerinthus, are you able to render
loving care to your girl,
now that the ague racks my weary limbs?
Ah! I would sooner succumb
to these bouts of illness, unless I knew
you wished my return to health.
What would be the point of my recovery,
if it were to leave your heart unmoved?
Estne tibi, Cerinthe, tuae pia cura puellae,
quod mea nunc vexat corpora fesse 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?
(freely translated from the Latin)
All English translations are by Jena Woodhouse.
Assistance in reading the Latin originals courtesy of Vladislav Nekliaev.
Guidance in Latin pronunciation by Monsignor John McEvoy is gratefully acknowledged.
A note on Sulpicia
Sulpicia is believed to be the author, in the first century BCE, of six short elegiac poems (3.13–18), which have been preserved as part of a collection of poetry, book 3 of the Corpus Tibullianum, initially attributed to Tibullus. The poems are addressed to Cerinthus (probably a pseudonym).