The man who studied all the lights of our great earth,
Who understood the rise and fall of stars,
How the fiery glow of our swift sun is eclipsed,
How stars fade at established hours,
How sweet love furtively draws the Moon
From her airy orbit and hides her beneath the rocks of Latmus:
He, Conon, saw me shining brightly on the edge of heaven,
A luscious lock from the head of Berenice,
Whom she pledged to many goddesses,
Extending her slim arms, when
The king, enriched though he was by his new marriage,
Set out to plunder the territory of the Syrians,
Wearing sweet traces of bedroom brawls
Which he acquired from his virginal rewards.
Is Love so hateful to new brides? Or are the joys
Of parents rendered void by the forced tears
They pour so profusely on the bedchamber’s threshold?
They do not, gods help me, go sighing from the heart.
With her many complaints my queen taught me that,
When her new husband sallied into savage battle.
But it was not an empty bed you mourned, was it,
But the tearful separation from a brother who was dear?
How anxiety consumed you to the depths of your sad marrow!
How the fears that filled your heart divorced
Your mind from your senses! But I for one
Realised you were great-hearted even as a young virgin.
Or have you forgotten the good deed by which you obtained
A royal husband, a deed no one stronger dared?
But then, what sad words you spoke as you bade your husband
Farewell. Jupiter, how often you wiped your sad eyes!
Who is the great god that changed you? Or is it that lovers
Do not want to be long parted from beloved flesh?
And there you vowed me to all the gods in exchange for your
Sweet husband, with bull blood too,
If he should return. He did not take long
To capture Asia and add it to the territory of Egypt.
So for these accomplishments I release the former vows
Made to the divine assembly in exchange for a new gift.
Unwillingly, queen, I was felled from your head,
Unwillingly, I swear by you and your head,
A worthy oath: if anyone idly invokes it let him suffer.
But who could claim he was a match for iron?
Even the mountain was uprooted, the tallest on the coast
That Sun, bright child of Thia, chariots over,
Since the Persians created a new sea and barbarian
Youth sailed through the midst of Mount Athos in their fleet.
What can hair do, when such mountains yield to iron?
Jupiter, curse be on the whole tribe of Iron Workers
And the man who first initiated the search beneath the ground
For metal and grazed what is hard with iron.
Severed a little earlier my sisters were mourning
My fate when the winged horse of Locrian Arsinoe,
The brother of Ethiopian Memnon, rode
Through the air, beating it with nodding wings,
Lifted me up and flew me through the night skies
And laid me in the chaste lap of Venus.
Arsinoe herself, a Greek living on the shores of Canopus,
Dispatched the West Wind’s own attendant to the deed,
Then, so the golden crown from Ariadne’s forehead
Should not be set alone on the colourful
Periphery of the sky, but that I might shine too,
The loyal spoils of a blonde head,
Venus placed me, a little wet from the waves as I travelled
To the temples of the gods, as a newby among the ancient stars.
For grazing the stars of Virgo and savage
Leo, adjoining the Bear Callisto daughter of Lycaon,
I turn to the west, ahead of slow Bootes,
Who only just succeeds in sinking into deep Ocean;
But while the feet of the gods trample me by night,
Dawn restores me to white-haired Tethys.
(May I speak with your compliance, virgin Nemesis,
For I will not conceal the truth through any fear,
Not even if the stars tear me to pieces for my hostile words –
I shall uncover what is hidden in my honest heart),
I am not rejoicing at this situation as much as being tortured
At being forever parted from my mistress’ head.
While once she was a virgin she had no share of perfumes,
But I absorbed many cheap ones.
The torch weds you with the light you have longed for,
But do not uncover your breasts, lay your clothes aside,
And give your bodies to be united in sex
Until the pleasant present of onyx delights me,
Your onyx, you who cherish with marriage the chaste bed,
But may the woman who gave herself to filthy adultery
Swallow evil libations and render them worthless in the light dust.
For I seek no rewards from the unworthy.
But rather, brides, may harmony always attend your
Houses, may lasting love do the same.
As for you, my queen, when you see your constellation
As you worship divine Venus with festival lights,
Do not let me be without your perfumes,
But furnish me with more splendid gifts
So the stars may repeat, ‘If only I could become
Royal hair! And may Orion shine near Aquarius.’