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Cupid's light darts my tender bofom move,
Still is there caufe for Sappho ftill to love:
So from my birth the Sifters fix'd my doom,
And gave to Venus all my life to come;

90

Or, while my Mufe in melting notes complains,
My yielding heart keeps measure to my strains.
By charms like thine which all my foul have won, 95
Who might not-ah! who would not be undone?
For those Aurora Cephalus might scorn,

And with fresh blushes paint the conscious morn.
For thofe might Cynthia lengthen Phaon's fleep,
And bid Endymion nightly tend his sheep. ̈*
Venus for those had rapt thee to the skies,
But Mars on thee might look with Venus' eyes.

100

O fcarce

Molle meum levibus cor eft violabile telis ;

Et femper caufa eft, cur ego femper amem.

Sive ita nafcenti legem dixere forores,

Nec data funt vitae fila fevera meae;
Sive abeunt ftudia in mores, artefque magiftrae,
Ingenium nobis molle Thalia facit.

Quid mirum, fi me primae lanuginis aetas
Abftulit, atque anni, quos vir amare poteft?

90

95

Hunc ne pro Cephalo raperes, Aurora, timebam:
Et faceres; fed te prima rapina tenet.

Hunc fi confpiciat, quae confpicit omnia, Phoebe;"
Juffus erit fomnos continuare Phaon.

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Hunc Venus in coelum curru vexiffet eburno;

Sed videt et Marti poffe placere fuo.

✪ scarce a youth, yet scarce a tender boy! Ø useful time for lovers to employ!

Pride of thy age, and glory of thy race,

105

Come to these arms, and melt in this embrace!
The vows you never will return, receive;
And take at least the love you will not give.
See, while I write, my words are loft in tears!
The less my sense, the more my love appears.
Sure 'twas not much to bid one kind adieu;
(At least to feign was never hard to you!)
Farewell, my Lesbian love, you might have faid;
Or coldly thus, Farewell, oh Lesbian maid!
No tear did you, no parting kiss receive,
Nor knew I then how much I was to grieve.
No lover's gift your Sappho could confer,
And wrongs and woes were all you left with her.

ΣΤΟ

115

No

O nec adhuc juvenis, nec jam puer! utilis aetas !
O decus, atque aevi gloria magna tui!

Huc ades, inque finus, formofe, relabere noftros: 105
Non ut ames oro, verum ut amare finas.
Scribimus, et lacrymis oculi rorantur abortis:
Aspice, quam fit in hoc multa litura loco.
Si tam certus eras hinc ire, modeftius iffes,
Et modo dixiffes: Lefbi puella, vale.
Non tecum lacrymas, non ofcula fumma tulisti ;
Denique non timui, quod dolitura fui.

Nil de te mecum eft, nifi tantum injuria: nec tu,
Admoneat quod te, pignus amantis habes.

+110

120

No charge I gave you, and no charge could give,
But this, Be mindful of our loves, and live.
Now by the Nine, those powers ador'd by me,
And Love, the God that ever waits on thee,
When first I heard (from whom I hardly knew)
That you were fled, and all my joys with you,
Like fome fad ftatue, fpeechlefs, pale I stood,
Grief chill'd my breast, and stopp'd my freezing blood;
No figh to rife, no tear had power to flow,
Fix'd in a stupid lethargy of woe:

But when its way th' impetuous paffion found,
I rend my tresses, and my breast I wound;
I rave, then weep; I curfe, and then complain;
Now fwell to rage, now melt in tears again.
Not fiercer pangs distract the mournful dame,
Whose first-born infant feeds the funeral flame.

Non mandata dedi; neque enim mandata dedissem
Ulla, nifi ut nolles immemor effe mei.
Per tibi, qui nunquam longe difcedat, Amorem,
Perque novem juro, numina nostra, Deas;
Cum mihi nefcio quis, Fugiunt tua gaudia, dixit:
Nec me flere diu, nec potuiffe loqui:

Et lacrymae deerant oculis, et lingua palato :
Aftri&tum gelido frigore pectus erat.
Poftquam fe dolor invenit; nec pectora plangi,
Nec puduit fciffis exululare comis:

Non aliter quam fi nati pia mater adempti

Portet ad extructos corpus inane rogos,

125

130

My

120

My scornful brother with a smile appears,
Infults my woes, and triumphs in my tears,
His hated image ever haunts my eyes;

And why this grief? thy daughter lives, he cries.
Stung with my love, and furious with despair,
All torn my garments, and my bofom bare,

My woes, thy crimes, I to the world proclaim;
Such inconfiftent things are love and shame!
'Tis thou art all my care and my delight,
My daily longing, and my dream by night:

135

140

O night, more pleasing than the brightest day,
When fancy gives what absence takes away,
And, drefs'd in all its vifionary charms,
Reftores my fair deferter to my arms!

145

Then round your neck in wanton wreaths I twine,
Then you, methinks, as fondly circle mine:

150 A thousand

Gaudet et e noftro crefcit moerore Charaxus
Frater; et ante oculos itque reditque meos.
Utque pudenda mei videatur caufa doloris ;
Quid dolet haec ? certe filia vivit, ait.

135

Non veniunt in idem pudor atque amor : omne videbat
Vulgus; eram lacero pectus aperta finu.

Tu mihi cura, Phaon; te fomnia noftra reducunt ;
Somnia formofo candidiora die.

140

Illic te invenio, quanquam regionibus abfis ;

145

Sed non longa fatis gaudia fomnus habet.

Saepe tuos noftra cervice onerare lacertos,
Saepe tuae videor fuppofuiffe meos.

150

A thousand tender words I hear and speak;
A thousand melting kiffes give, and take:
Then fiercer joys, I blush to mention these,
Yet, while I blush, confefs how much they please.
But when, with day, the sweet delufions fly,

And all things wake to life and joy, but I,

As if once more forfaken, I complain,
And close my eyes to dream of you again:
Then frantic rife, and like fome Fury rove

155

Through lonely plains, and through the filent grové,
As if the filent grove, and lonely plains,
That knew my pleasures, could relieve my pains.
I view the Grotto, once the fcene of love,
The rocks around, the hanging roofs above,

Blandior interdum; verifque fimillima verba
Eloquor; et vigilant fenfibus ora meis.....
Ofcula cognofco; quae tu committere linguae,
Aptaque confuêras accipere, apta dare.
Ulteriora pudet narrare; fed omnia fiunt,
Et juvat, et fine te non libet effe mihi.
At cum fe Titan oftendit, et omnia fecum ;
Tam cito me fomnos deftituiffe queror.

That

155

Antra nemufque peto, tanquam nemus antràque pro

fint.

Confcia deliciis illa fuere tuis.

Illuc mentis inops, ut quam furialis Erichtho

Impulit, in collo crine jacente feror.

Antra vident oculi fcabro pendentia topho,

Quae mihi Mygdonii marmoris inftar erant.

160

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