_He says that he is the slave of Corinna, and complains of the tyranny
which she exercises over him._
|If there shall be any one who thinks it inglorious to serve a damsel:
in his opinion I shall be convicted of such baseness. Let me be
disgraced; if only she, who possesses Paphos, and Cythera, beaten by
the waves, torments me with less violence. And would that I had been the
prize, too, of some indulgent mistress; since I was destined to be the
prize of some fair. Beauty begets pride; through her charms Corinna is
disdainful. Ah wretched me! why is she so well known to herself? Pride,
forsooth, is caught from the reflection of the mirror: and _there_ she
sees not herself, unless she is first adorned.
If your beauty gives you a sway not too great over all things, face born
to fascinate my eyes, still, you ought not, on that account, to despise
me comparatively with yourself. That which is inferior must be united
with what is great. The Nymph Calypso, seized with passion for a mortal,
is believed to have detained the hero against his will. It is believed
that the ocean-daughter of Nereus was united to the king of Plithia,
[474] _and_ that Egeria was to the just Numa: that Venus was to Vulcan:
although, his anvil [475] left, he limped with a distorted foot. This
same kind of verse is unequal; but still the heroic is becomingly united
[476] with the shorter measure.
You, too, my life, receive me upon any terms. May it become you to
impose conditions in the midst of your caresses. I will be no disgrace
to you, nor one for you to rejoice at my removal. This affection will
not be one to be disavowed by you. [477] May my cheerful lines be to you
in place of great wealth: even many a fair wishes to gain fame through
me. I know of one who publishes it that she is Corinna. [478] What would
she not be ready to give to be so? But neither do the cool Eurotas, and
the poplar-bearing Padus, far asunder, roll along the same banks; nor
shall any one but yourself be celebrated in my poems. You, alone, shall
afford subject-matter for my genius.