| 1 | CONON, he who scanned all the lights of the vast sky, |
| 2 | who learnt the risings of the stars and their settings, |
| 3 | how the flaming blaze of the swift sun suffers eclipse, |
| 4 | how the stars recede at set seasons, |
| 5 | how sweet love calls Trivia from her airy circuit, |
| 6 | banishing her secretly to the rocky cave of Latmus -- |
| 7 | that same Conon saw me shining brightly among the lights of heaven, |
| 8 | me, the lock from the head of Berenice, |
| 9 | me whom she vowed to many of the goddesses, |
| 10 | stretching forth her smooth arms, |
| 11 | at that season when the king, blest in his new marriage, |
| 12 | had gone to waste the Assyrian borders, |
| 13 | carrying the sweet traces of our battles at night |
| 14 | which he had won by conquering my virginity. |
| 15 | Is Venus hated by brides? and do they mock |
| 16 | the joys of parents with false tears, |
| 17 | which they shed plentifully within their virgin bowers? |
| 18 | No, so may the gods help me, they lament not truly. |
| 19 | This my queen taught me by all her lamentations, |
| 20 | when her newly wedded husband went forth to grim war. |
| 21 | But your tears, forsooth, were not shed for the desertion of your widowed bed, |
| 22 | but for the mournful parting from your dear brother, |
| 23 | when sorrow gnawed the inmost marrow of your sad heart. |
| 24 | At that time how from your whole breast did your anxious |
| 25 | spirit fail, bereft of sense! and yet truly |
| 26 | I knew you to be stout-hearted from young girlhood. |
| 27 | Have you forgotten the brave deed by which you gained a royal |
| 28 | marriage, which none else could venture and so win the title of braver? |
| 29 | But at that time in your grief, when parting from your husband, what words did you utter! |
| 30 | How often, O Jupiter, did you brush away'the tears with your hand! |
| 31 | What mighty god has changed you thus ? is it that lovers |
| 32 | cannot bear to be far away from the side of him they love? |
| 33 | And there to all the gods for your dear husband's welfare |
| 34 | you vowed me not without blood of bulls, |
| 35 | so he should complete his return. He in no long time |
| 36 | had added conquered Asia to the territories of Egypt. |
| 37 | This is done; and now I am given as due to the host of heaven, |
| 38 | and pay your former vows with a new offering. |
| 39 | Unwillingly. O queen, I was parted from your head, |
| 40 | unwillingly, I swear both by you and by your head; |
| 41 | by which if any swear vainly, let him reap a worthy recompense. |
| 42 | But what man can claim to be as strong as steel? |
| 43 | Even that mountain was overthrown, the greatest of all in those shores |
| 44 | which the bright son of Thia traverses, |
| 45 | when the Medes created a new sea, and when the youth |
| 46 | of Persia swam in their fleet through mid Athos. |
| 47 | What shall locks of hair do, when such things as this yield to steel? |
| 48 | Jupiter, may all the race of the Chalybes perish, |
| 49 | and he, who first began to seek for veins underground, |
| 50 | and to forge hard bars of iron! |
| 51 | My sister locks, sundered from me just before, were mourning for my fate, |
| 52 | when the own brother of Ethiopian Memnon appeared, |
| 53 | striking the air with waving wings, |
| 54 | the winged follower of Locrian Arsinoe. |
| 55 | And he sweeping me away flies through the airs of heaven |
| 56 | and places me in the holy bosom of Venus. |
| 57 | On that service had the Lady of Zephyrium, the Grecian queen, |
| 58 | who sojourns on the shores of Canopus, herself sent her own minister. |
| 59 | Then Venus -- that among the various lights of heaven, |
| 60 | not only should the golden crown taken from the brows of Ariadne |
| 61 | be fixed, but that I also might shine, |
| 62 | the dedicated spoil of Berenice's sunny head, |
| 63 | me too, wet with tears, and transported to the abodes of the gods, |
| 64 | me a new constellation among the ancient stars did the goddess set; |
| 65 | for I, touching the fires of the Virgin and the raging Lion, |
| 66 | and close by Callisto daughter of Lycaon, |
| 67 | move to my setting, while I point the way before slow Bootes, |
| 68 | who scarce late at night dips in deep ocean. |
| 69 | But though at night the footsteps of the gods press close upon me, |
| 70 | whilst by day I am restored to gray Tethys |
| 71 | (under thy sufferance let mespeak this, O Virgin of Rhamnus; |
| 72 | no fear shall make me hide the truth, |
| 73 | no, not even though the stars shall rend me with angry words |
| 74 | will I refrain from uttering the secrets of a true heart), |
| 75 | I do not so much rejoice in this good fortune, as grieve that parted, |
| 76 | ever parted must I be from the head of my lady; |
| 77 | with whom of old, while she was still a virgin, delighting herself |
| 78 | with all kinds of perfumes, I drank many thousands. |
| 79 | Now, ye maidens, when the torch has united you with welcome light, |
| 80 | yield not your bodies to your loving spouses, |
| 81 | baring your breasts with vesture opened, |
| 82 | before the onyx jar offers pleasant gifts to me, |
| 83 | the jar which is yours, who reverence marriage in chaste wedlock. |
| 84 | But as for her who gives herself up to foul adultery, |
| 85 | ah! let the light dust drink up her worthless gifts unratified: |
| 86 | for I ask no offerings from the unworthy. |
| 87 | But rather, O ye brides, may concord evermore dwell |
| 88 | in your homes, ever abiding Love. |
| 89 | And you, my queen, when gazing up to the stars |
| 90 | you propitiate Venus with festal lamps, |
| 91 | let not me your handmaid want perfumes, |
| 92 | but rather enrich me with bounteous gifts. |
| 93 | Why do the stars keep me here? I would fain be the queen's lock once more; |
| 94 | and let Orion blaze next to Aquarius. |