Pat Maginess: Private-Eye

Thank you.


I'm afraid I put a little twist in at the end that isn't in the style of the original. Propertius' version runs

"What does it matter if my life is laid down upon your body? It will not be a dishonourable death."

In my version it becomes

"my loss comes later, guaranteed a happy death."

With death, he can finally forget about the witch!

NOTE:

Just for the record, here's Sextus' original version.



Let them admire the fact, now, that so lovely a girl serves me, and that they talk of my power throughout the city! Though Cambyses and the rivers of Croesus should return, she will not say: ‘Rise up, poet, from the bed.’ While she reads to me, she says she hates rich men: no girl cherishes poetry with such reverence. Loyalty is great in love: constancy greatly serves it: he, who can give many gifts, can have his many lovers.

If my girl thinks of travelling over the wide sea, I’ll follow her, and one breeze will blow the faithful pair onward. One shore will calm us, and one tree overspread us, and we will often drink at a single spring. And one plank will do for two lovers, whether the prow’s my bed or the stern.

I’ll patiently endure it all: though the savage East Wind blows; or the chill South drives our sails into uncertainty; and whatever winds vexed unhappy Ulysses, and the thousand ships of Greece by Euboea’s shore; and the one that separated two coasts, when a dove led a ship, the Argo, into an unknown sea.

Let Jupiter himself set our boat on fire, so long as she is never absent from my eyes. Surely we’ll both be hurled on the same shore, naked, together: the wave can carry me off, so long as earth protects you.

Yet Neptune’s not so cruel to great love: Neptune equals his brother Jove in loving. Amymone’s a witness, taken in the fields, bringing forth water, Lerna’s marshes struck by the trident. The god redeemed his pledge for that embrace, and the golden urn poured out a celestial stream. And Orithyia, though raped, denied that Boreas was cruel: this god tames the earth and deep oceans.

Believe me Scylla will be gentle to us, and huge Charybdis who never ceases from her changing flow: no shadows will hide the stars themselves, Orion will show clear, and the Kids. What does it matter if my life is laid down upon your body? It will not be a dishonourable death.

Just a small effort (he says kinda-sorta modestly).



I appreciate your thought, Richard.


BTW, I have the Elegies on an e-book. I could probably find the link again if you are interested in going through them. It's free.