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Siquis erit, qui turpe putet servire puellae,

Illo convincar iudice turpis ego!

Sim licet infamis, dum me moderatius urat,

Quae Paphon et fluctu pulsa Cythera tenet.

Atque utinam dominae miti quoque praeda fuissem

Formosae quoniam praeda futurus eram!

Dat facies animos. facie violenta Corinna est —

Me miserum! cur est tam bene nota sibi?

Scilicet a speculi sumuntur imagine fastus,

Nec nisi conpositam se prius illa videt!

Non, tibi si facies animum dat et omina regni —

O facies oculos nata tenere meos! —

Collatum idcirco tibi me contemnere debes;

Aptari magnis inferiora licet.

Traditur et nymphe mortalis amore Calypso

Capta recusantem detinuisse virum.

Creditur aequoream Pthio Nereida regi,

Egeriam iusto concubuisse Numae,

Vulcano Venerem, quamvis incude relicta

Turpiter obliquo claudicet ille pede.

Carminis hoc ipsum genus inpar; sed tamen apte

Iungitur herous cum breviore modo.

Tu quoque me, mea lux, in quaslibet accipe leges;

Te deceat medio iura dedisse foro.

Non tibi crimen ero, nec quo laetere remoto;

Non erit hic nobis infitiandus amor.

Sunt mihi pro magno felicia carmina censu,

Et multae per me nomen habere volunt;

Novi aliquam, quae se circumferat esse Corinnam.

Ut fiat, quid non illa dedisse velit?

Sed neque diversi ripa labuntur eadem

Frigidus Eurotas populiferque Padus,

Nec nisi tu nostris cantabitur ulla libellis;

Ingenio causas tu dabis una meo.

Amores. P. Ovidius Naso. Leipzig. 1907.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education.

Current edition Perseus

Amores (Ovid. P. Ovidius Naso, Volume 1: Amores, Epistulae, Medicamina faciei femineae, Ars amatoria, Remedia amoris. Ehwald, Rudolf; Merkel, Rudolph; editors. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1907.)

Translations (1)

Amores Perseus (Ovid. Ovid's Art of Love (in three Books), the Remedy of Love, the Art of Beauty, the Court of Love, the History of Love, and Amours. Dryden, John, et al., translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.) — 2.17 focus

Elegy XVII: He tells Corinna he will always be her slave

If there's a wretch, who thinks it is a shame,

To serve a lovely and a loving dame:

If such a slave he loads with infamy,

I'm willing he should judge as hard of me;

I'm willing all the world should know my shame

If Venus will abate my raging flame.

Let me a fair and gentle mistress have,

And then proclaim aloud that I'm her slave.

Beauty is apt to swell a maiden's mind,

And thus Corinna is to pride inclin'd:

But as she is above all maiden's fair,

What's pride in them is insolence in her;

Less fair I wish she was, or knew it less;

How learnt she, she is lovely by her face!

Her mirror tells her so, she often tries

Her mirror, and believes her charming eyes.

The looks she then puts on, are still her best,

And she ne'er uses it but when she's dress'd.

Though wide the empire of your beauties spread,

Beauty to draw my am'rous glances made:

Compare your servant's merit with your eyes,

You'll find no cause his service to dispise.

Don't think I press upon your pride too hard.

For little things may be with great compar'd:

We're told Calypso, an immortal pow'r,

Detain'd a mortal in th' Ogygian pow'r,

And when her pray'r to stay he would not grant,

So strong her love, she kept him by constraint.

A Nereid took the Pythian to her arms.

And Numa knew divine Egeria 's charms.

Vulcan though lame, and of a form obscene,

Was oft made happy by the Paphian queen;

She matter'd not his limping, but approv'd

His flame, and saw no faults in him she lov'd

My verses are unequal like his feet,

Yet the long kindly with the shorter meet.

As they with them, why shouldst thou not with me

Comply, my life and my divinity !

Myself, when I am in thy arms, I'll own

Thy subject, and the bed shall be thy throne;

Thou there, my lovely queen, shall give me laws,

Nor in my absence, to rejoice have cause,

Nor ever shall my services be blam'd

Nor shalt thou of thy servant be asham'd.

My poetry's my purse, my fortun's there,

I have no other way to win the fair;

Nor is that way the worst; the brightest dames

Would in my verse immortalize their names.

My muse the place of an estate supplies,

And none that know her worth, her wealth despise.

Some tempted by Corinna 's spreading fame,

In envy rob her, and usurp her name;

What would they give, d'ye think, to be the same ?

But neither could Eurotas, nor the Po,

With poplar shaded, in one channel flew;

By diff'rent, and by distant banks they glide,

Are rivers both, but various in their tide.

There are more beauties, but there's none like thine,

There are more versed, but thou hast only mine;

No other charms can e'er inspire my muse,

And other themes I with disdain refuse.

P. Ovidius Naso Amores 2.17

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Elegy XVII: He tells Corinna he will always be her slave

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