Classic Poem

IDYLL XXIX

L OVES

" Sincerity comes with the wine-cup, " my dear.
Then now o'er our wine-cups let us be sincere.
My soul's treasured secret to you I'll impart;
It is this; that I never won fairly your heart
One half of my life, I am conscious, has flown;
The residue lives on your image alone.
You are kind, and I dream I'm in paradise then;
You are angry, and lo! all is darkness again
It is right to torment one who loves you? Obey
Your elder; 'twere best; and you'll thank me one day.
Settle down in one nest on one tree (taking care
That no cruel reptile can clamber up there);
As it is with your lovers you're fairly perplext;
One day you choose one bough, another the next.
Whoe'er at all struck by your graces appears,
Is more to you straight than the comrade of years;
While he's like the friend of a day put aside;
For the breath of your nostrils, I think, is your pride.
Form a friendship, for life, with some likely young lad;
So doing, in honour your name shall be had
Nor would Love use you hardly; though lightly can he
Bind strong men in chains, and as wrought upon me
Till the steel is as wax — but I'm longing to press
That exquisite mouth with a clinging caress.

No? Reflect that you're older each year than the last;
That we all must grow gray, and the wrinkles come fast
Reflect, ere you spurn me, that youth at his sides
Wears wings; and once gone, all pursuit he derides:
Nor are men over keen to catch charms as they fly.
Think of this and be gentle, be loving as I:
When your years are maturer, we two shall be then
The pair in the Iliad over again
But if you consign all my words to the wind
And say, " Why annoy me?, you're not to my mind, "
I — who lately in quest of the Gold Fruit had sped
For your sake, or of Cerberus guard of the dead —
Though you called me, would ne'er stir a foot from my door,
For my love and my sorrow thenceforth will be o'er.