Thursday, May 07, 2015
The Wish to Give Up Part of One's Life in Exchange for Another's
Tibullus 1.6.63 (tr. J.P. Postgate):
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Did but heaven allow, to thy stock of years would I add my own.Propertius 4.11.95 (tr. G.P. Goold):
proprios ego tecum,
sit modo fas, annos contribuisse velim.
May the time that was taken from me be added to your years.Carmina Latina Epigraphica 995.13-16 (tr. Edward Courtney):
quod mihi detractumst, vestros accedat ad annos.
If cruel destiny permitted exchange of life and survival could be purchased by another's death, I should gladly have exchanged for you, dear Homonoea, whatever time is due to my life.Id., lines 25-26:
si pensare animas sinerent crudelia fata
et posset redimi morte aliena salus,
quantulacumque meae debentur tempora vitae,
pensassem pro te, cara Homonoea, libens.
May my premature death prolong for you as you live into the future that part of the prime of life which it has taken from me.Acclamation quoted by Tertullian, Apology 35.7 (tr. T.R. Glover):
quodque mihi eripuit mors immatura iuventae,
id tibi victuro proroget ulterius.
Jupiter take our years to add to thine.More parallels in Edward Courtney, ed., The Fragmentary Latin Poets (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993; rpt. 2003), p. 482.
de nostris annis augeat tibi Iuppiter annos.