Thursday, June 04, 2015
If You Are Wise
Martial 8.77 (tr. D.R. Shackleton Bailey):
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Liber, your friends' sweetest care, Liber, worthy to live wreathed in everlasting roses, if you are wise, let your hair ever glisten with Assyrian unguent and garlands of flowers circle your head. Let the clear crystal grow dark with old Falernian and the soft couch be warm with a beguiling loved one. He who has so lived, though he end in mid span, has made his life longer than it was given to him.
Liber, amicorum dulcissima cura tuorum,
Liber, in aeterna vivere digne rosa,
si sapis, Assyrio semper tibi crinis amomo
splendeat et cingant florea serta caput;
candida nigrescant vetulo crystalla Falerno
et caleat blando mollis amore torus.
qui sic vel medio finitus vixit in aevo,
longior huic facta est quam data vita fuit.
