Remedia amoris

Ovid

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. Tate, Nahum, translator. New York: Calvin Blanchard, 1855.

  1. Even fear with passion will some minds inspire
  2. Remove distrust, and passion will retire.
  3. Who fears some rival should his mistress gain,
  4. Machaon's skill can scarce relieve his pain.
  5. Since no fond mother for her darling son,
  6. Feels greater pangs, when to the wars he's gone.
  7. Near the Salarian gate a temple's plac'd,
  8. With Erycinian Venus' worship grac'd;
  9. 'Tis there Lethaean love cures love's desire,[*](Lethe, the river of forgetfulness. There was one in Lydia of that name, another in Macedon, another in Spain and another in Crete.)
  10. Bedews his lamps, and water blends with fire;
  11. There sweet forgetfulness griev'd lovers find,
  12. And, injur'd nymphs, whose husbands prove unkind.
  13. There in a vision, (if a vision 'twere)
  14. I heard the Cupid speak, or seem'd to hear.
  15. "0, thou who dost sometimes teach youth to love,
  16. Then rules prescribe their passion to remove:
  17. One powerful precept more let me impart,
  18. Unknown to you a master in the art.
  19. Bid him who loves, and would love's yoke reject,
  20. On his own life's misfortunes oft reflect:
  21. For all have crosses, 'tis the common lot.
  22. Let him, who deeply into debt has got,
  23. Think on a gaol, and how he shall sustain
  24. Confinement, more severe than Cupid's chain.
  25. Let him who serves a rigid father's will
  26. And sees his filial duty treated ill,
  27. (Whate'er success in other things he find)
  28. Keep still his father's angry looks in mind.
  29. Let him who has that double curse of life,
  30. At once a shrew and beggar to his wife,
  31. Instead of gallantry abroad, contrive
  32. Domestic famine from his door to drive,
  33. You that are masters of a gen'rous soil,
  34. Look to your vines, employ your careful toil,
  35. Lest sudden frosts the hopeful vintage spoil.
  36. One has a trading vessel homeward bound;
  37. Let him imagine storms, his ship unsound,
  38. Bulg'd, founder'd, wreck'd, and more, some barb'rous coast
  39. Enrich'd with the dear cargo he has lost.
  40. Fear for your son, who serves in this campaign,
  41. And for your daughter be in greater pain.
  42. For mortifying cares you need not roam,
  43. By thousands they will throng to you at home.
  44. If, Paris, Helen's charms you would abhor,
  45. Behold your brothers weltering in their gore."
  46. Thus spake the god, till from my fancy's view
  47. His youthful form, sleep from my eyes withdrew.
  48. What shall I do, my Palinurus gone,[*](Palinurus was one of Aeneas's companions, and his pilot; who falling asleep at the helm, tumbled with it in his hand into the sea, and after three days swimming arrived at Port Velino in Italy, where he was robbed and killed by the inhabitants. For this they were severely plagued, and, having consulted Apollo's oracle, to appease his ghost consecrated a grove to him, and built him a tomb on the next promontory; called still by the Italians the cape of Palinurus.)
  49. And left to steer through untried seas alone?