Category: Poetry
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Phaethon
Phaethon Gustave Moreau, 1878, Musée du Louvre, Paris Praise for Tales from Ovid: ‘A breathtaking book…To compare his versions with the Latin is to be awestruck again and again by the range and ingenuity of his poetic intelligence…He rescues the old gods and goddesses from the classical dictionaries and gives them back their terror. There…
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The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part XI: Have Other Friends: But Be Careful
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD But the red-haired boar is not so fierce in mid-anger. when he turns and threatens the rabid pack, or the lioness giving suck to un-weaned cubs, or the tiny viper crushed by a careless foot, as a woman when a rival’s caught in her lover’s bed:…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part X: Let Her Miss You: But Not For Long
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD But the winds that filled your sails and blew offshore, are no use when you’re in the open sea. While young love’s wandering, it gathers strength by use: if you nourish it well, it will be strong in time. The bull you fear’s the calf you…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part IX: Comfort Her in Sickness
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Often in autumn, when the season’s loveliest, and the ripe grape’s dyed with purple juice, when now we’re frozen solid, now drenched with heat, the body’s listless in the changing air. Your girl’s well in fact: but if she’s lying sick, feels ill because of the…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part VIII: Favour Her and Compliment Her
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Then what you’re about to do, and think is useful, always get your lover to ask you to do it. You promised liberty to one of your slaves: still let him seek the fact of it from your girl: if you stay a punishment, forgo the…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part VII: Give Her Little Tasteful Gifts
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD I don’t tell you to give your mistress expensive gifts: give little but of that little, skilfully, give what’s fitting. When the field is full of riches, when the branches bend with the weight, let the boy bring a gift in a rustic basket. You can…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part VI: Win Over the Servants
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Nor is it shameful to you to cultivate her maids, according to their grades, and the serving men. Greet them by their names (it costs you nothing) clasp humble hands with yours, in your ambition. And even offer the servant, who asks, a little something on…
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Metamorphoses
Juul Kraijer’s Spawn (2019) Wherever the might of Rome extends in the lands she has conquered, the people shall read and recite my words. Throughout all ages, if poets have vision to prophesy truth, I shall live in my fame. Ovid, Metamorphoses 15.877–9 Funny, devastating, flip, throat-catching – the moods of the Metamorphoses are as…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part V: Don’t be Faint-Hearted
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD Love is a kind of warfare. Slackers, dismiss! There are no cowards guarding this standard. Night and winter, long roads and cruel sorrows, and every kind of labour are found on love’s campaigns. You’ll often endure rain pouring from heavenly clouds, and frozen, lie there on…
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Ovid: The Art of Love (Ars Amatoria) Book II Part IV: Be Patient and Comply
Publius Ovidius Naso 43 BC – c. 17 AD If she’s not charming or courteous enough, at your loving, endure it and persist: she’ll soon be kinder. You can get a curved branch to bend on the tree by patience: you’ll break it, if you try out your full strength. With patience you can cross…
