TO LYDIA.

O Lydia, when you commend Telephus' rosy neck, and the waxen arms of

Telephus, alas! my inflamed liver swells with bile difficult to be

repressed. Then neither is my mind firm, nor does my color maintain a

certain situation: and the involuntary tears glide down my cheek,

proving with what lingering flames I am inwardly consumed. I am on fire,

whether quarrels rendered immoderate by wine have stained your fair

shoulders; or whether the youth, in his fury, has impressed with his

teeth a memorial on your lips. If you will give due attention to my

advice, never expect that he will be constant, who inhumanly wounds

those sweet kisses, which Venus has imbued with the fifth part of all

her nectar. O thrice and more than thrice happy those, whom an

indissoluble connection binds together; and whose love, undivided by

impious complainings, does not separate them sooner than the last day!

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The Works of Horace · 第 32 / 322 题