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Pervigilium Veneris
Anonymous

This page contains only the last few lines from the copyrighted translation of Pervigilium Veneris found in the book Loeb Classical Library available from Harvard University Press. For a public domain translation of Pervigilium Veneris see the Thomas Parnell translation written circa 1700. It has been described as a crude translation.

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Let him love tomorrow who has never loved,
    and let him who has tomorrow love!

See, the bulls now lay their flanks beneath the broom,
each secure in the conjugal blood which binds him!
See beneath the shade the bleating flocks with their lords!
And the Goddess has bidden the tuneful birds to be mute;
now hoarse-mouthed swans crash trumpeting over the pools;
the young wife of Tereus makes descant under the popular shade,
making you think that tunes of love issued from her melodious mouth,
and not a sister's complaint of her brutal husband.
She sings, I am mute. When will my spring come?
When shall I become like the swallow, that I may cease to be voiceless?
I have lost my Muse, through being voiceless, and Phoebus regards me not;
so did Amyclae through being voiceless, persish by its very silence.

Let him love tomorrow who has never loved,
    and let him who has tomorrow love!



Exploring The Waste Land - [Home] [E-mail] File date: Sunday, September 29, 2002