THE METAMORPHOSES OF PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO

II
232 P. OVIDII NASONIS LIBER 111
Quern neque pastores, neque pastas monte capellse
Contigerant, aliudve pecus; quern nulla volucris,
Nee fera turbarat, nee lapsus ab arbore ramus.
Gramen erat circa, quod proximus humor alebat; 10
Sylvaque, sole lacum passura tepescere nullo.
Hie puer, et studio venandi lassus et eestu,
Procubuit; faciemque loci, fontenique secutus.
Dumque sitim sedure cupit; sitis altera crevit.
Dumque bibit, VISSB correptus imagine formse, 1 5
Rem sine corpore amat; corpus putat esse, quod umbra est.
Adstupet ipse sibi; vultuque immotus eodem
Haeret, ut e Pario formatum marmore signum.
Special humi positus geminum, sua lumina, sidus,
Et dignos Baccho, dignos et Apolline crines; 20
Impubesque genas, et eburnea colla, decusque
Oris, et in niveo mistum candore ruborem;
Cunctaque miratur, quibus est mirabilis ipse.
Se cupit imprudens: et, qni probat, ipse probatur:'
Dumque petit, petitur; pariterque incendit, et ardet. 25
Irritd fallaci quoties dedit oscula fonti!
In mediis, quoties visum captantia colluin,
Brachia mersit aquis; nee se deprendit in illis!
Gluid vidoat, nescit; sed, quod videt, uritur illo:
his image. It was in a quiet and seques
tered spot, and had never been troubled
before.
Through the wild and devious solitude
Ho threaded the ma/e. alone.
To a lake, that fringed with underwood,
Like the eye of the forest shone.
He parted the branches waving o'er
The glassy water's brink,
Ne'er parted, save by the fawn, before,
As ii glided through, to drink.
ANTIQUE CAMEOS.
6. Argcnteut: silvery; bright as silver.
Ovid, in his Epistles, has another beautiful
description of a fountain :
A fount there is, whose silver waters show,
Clear as a glass, the shining sand* below;
A flowery lotus spreads its arms above,
Shades all the banks, and seems iisclf a grove :
Eternnl greens the mossy margin grace.
AVutched by the s> Ivan genius of the place
SAPMIO TO PH io\.
12. Slndio venandi: with the engage
ments of hunting.
13. Faciem foci scculus: having followed
witjt ftt's eyes the appeiranre of the place ;
being charmed with the appearance of the
place.
11. Silim sedare: to slake his thirst. So
Lucretius:
Et eednre shim prius est, quarn pocula natam.
14. Sitis allera: a different thirst, viz.
the love of himself.
1C. Sim sine corpore: a thing without a
12. Puer Insaus et
studio venandi. et fcs-
tu, procubuit hie, se
cutus faciemque loci,
foutemque.
19. Fositus humi,
special sua lumina,
geminum sidus, et
crines dignos Bacclio,
dignos et Apolline.
body; a ihing without substance, viz. the
shadow of himself.
18. Pario marmore. The best and whitest
marble was obtained from Paros, an island
in the jEgean.
18. Haret : he remains fixed.
And leaves the semblance of n lover, fixed
In melancholy siie, with head declined,
And love-dejected eyes. THOMSON.
18. Signum: a figure; a statue.
19. Humi positus: thrown upon the
ground.
Straj s. in heart-thrilling meditation lost,
Indulging all to love: or on ike bank
Thrown, amid droopi.ig lilies, swells the breeze
AVitu sighs unceasing, and the brook with tears.
THOMSON.
20. flignos Bacclio. His hair would have
graced Bacchus or Apollo. Tlte poets de-
fiitht to dwell upon the beauty of the hair
of tho.sc deities.
Solis neternft est Phccfio Gacchoque joventa;
Kt decet iniousus crinis uirumque deurn.
TlBULLrjS.
21. fmpubts getias: beardless cheeks.
2t. Probat. A s the lover and the be
loved arc one and the same person, the
poet lias, with address, represented the
circumstance, by employing the same verb
in different voices; the active voice being
beautifully expressive of the male charac
ter, while the passive voice corresponds
in its nature to the female.
23. Accendit et ardet: inflames, and is
inflamed.
F tBULA VI. METAMORPHOSED N. 233
Alque oculos idem, qui decipil, incilal, error. 30
Credule, quid fruslra simulacra fugacia capias?
Quod pelis, esl nusquam: quod amas, averlere, perdes.
Isla repercussae, cjuam cernis, imaginis umbra esl.
Nil habel isla sui. Tecuin venilque, manelque;
Tecum discedel; si tu discedere possis. 35
Non ilium Cereris, non ilium cura quielis,
Abslrahere mde potesl. Sed, opaca fusus in herba,
Special inexplelo mendacem lumine formam:
Perque oculos peril ipse sues. Paulumque levatus,
Ad circumslanles tendens sua brachia sylvas:
Ecquis, i'o sylvas, crudelius, inquit, amavil?
Scilis enim, el mullis lalebra opportuna fuistis.
Ecquem, cum veslras lot aganlur sascula vitas,
Glui sic labueril, longo merainistis in asvo?
Et placet, el video; sed quod videoque, placetque,
Non lainen invenio: lanlus lenet error amanlem.
duoque magis doleam; nee nos mare separal ingens.
Nee via, nee monies, nee clausis mocnia porlis;
31. Simulacra fugacia: fleeting images.
32. Avtrtere: be turned away. The verb
is in the imperative mood, passive voice.
33. Repercussce imagiuis: of your re
flected image.
34. Nil habet sui: has nothing of itself;
has no reality. Milton, in describing Eve
at the fountain, has imitated this passage
of our poet:
That day loft remember, when from sleep
I first awuked, and found myself reposed
Under a shade on flowers; much wondering
where.
And what I was whence thiiher brought, and
how.
Not distant far from thence a murmuring sound
Of waters issued from a cave, and spread
Into a liquid plain, then stood unmoved.
Purr us the expanse of heaven: I thiiher went
AVith unexperienced though*, and lain me down
On the green bunk, to look into the clear
Smooth lake, that to me seemed another eky. "
As 1 bent down to look, just opposite
A shape within tlie watery gleam appeared,
Uenrling to look ou me : I started back,
It storied back; hut pleased I soon returned.
Vleased it returned as soou, with answering
looks
Df sympathy and love: there I had fixed
Vline e> es till now. and pined with vnin. desire,
Had not a voice thus warned me: u What thou
seest,
What there thou seest, fair creature, is thyself;
With thee it came and goes; but follow me,
And I will bring thee wnere no shadow stays
Thy coining, and thy soft embraces, he
Whose imnge thou nn; him ihou shall enjoy
Inseparably ihine. to him shall bear
Multitudes like thyself, and thence he called
Mother of human race. AYliat could I do,
Hut follow straight, invisibly thus led.
Till 1 espied thee. fuir indeed, mid tall,
Uniler a plnnuiiu? yet, inrihoughi. less fair,
Less winning soft, If ss ammbly mild.
Than thai smooih watery imuge : hack I turned;
Thou following, criedstaloud; Return, fair Eve'
30
40
30. Atque idem er
ror qui decipit oculos,
incitat cox.
36. Non cure Cere
ris ilium, non cura
quietis polest abstrti-
here ilium inde.
43. Cum totssecula
vestrae viue apantur,
meimnislis er quern in
M r longo sevo qui titbuerit
«c?
Whom fliest thou ? whom Ihou flica., of him
thou art,
His flesh, his bone; to give tliee being I lent
Out of my side to thee, nearest my heart,
Substantial life, to have thee by my side
Henceforth an individual solace dear.
PARADISE Losr.
36. Cura Cereris: a regard for food.
Ceres, the goddess of corn, is here put, by
metonymy, for food made of corn. Ceres
wns the daughter of Saturn and Vesta.
She had a beautiful daughter by Jupiter,
named Proserpine, who was carried away
by Pluto, as she was gathering flowers at
Ennn, in Sicily. Disconsolate at her loss,
ehe lit two torches, and travelled over the
whole world in search of her daughter.
Having leni'ned the fate of Proserpine, she
went up to heaven in a chariot drawn by
two dragons, and besought Jupiter to cause
her restoration; with which request he
complied, on condition that she had not
eaten any thing in the infernal regions.
She had, however, tasted some pome
granates, which rendered her constant stay
on earih conlrary to the fates. Jupiter
then ordered Proserpine to remain six
months of the year with Pluto, and the
rest of the year with her mother, upon
earth. She was the same as the Egyptian
Isis.
37. Fusus : thrown carelessly. This
word expresses a perfect abandonment of
pel-son.
38. fu explclo lumine: with unsatisfied eye.
42. I^alibra opporluna: a convenient re
treat. Many had come thiiher to nourish,
amid tls shades, an unfortunate passion.
Sudden he starts,
Phook from his lender trance, and resilcss runs
To glimmering shades and sympathetic glooms
THOMSON