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Ovid II
If someone let me kiss your honeyed
eyes, Juventius, all I pleased,
I would kiss them three hundred thousand
times and never feel replete,
not if our kissing's harvest should
outnumber ripened ears of wheat.
PUBLIUS OVIDIUS NASO was born at Sulmo--the modern Sulmona--on March the 20th, 43 B.C.
COME, bind ye my brows, ye laurels of victory, for I have conquered; lo, in my arms I hold her, this wonderful Corinna, whom husband, watchman, oaken door and all such enemies to love, were guarding from the invader. This is a victory specially deserving of triumphal honors, since the prize, without bloodshed, has been gained. No lowly ramparts, nor towns with narrow moats begirt, but a woman it is that my generalship has won.
Do not wonder, Rufus, why no woman
will lay her tender thigh beneath your own,
not even if you tempt her with a gift
of fine clothes or a choice translucent stone.
What harms you is a certain ugly rumor
saying there's a savage goat that lives
within your armpits' valley. They all fear it.
No wonder. What a nasty beast it is.
No pretty girl would sleep with that-no way!
Therefore, destroy this cruel plague on noses
or cease to wonder why they run away.
My woman says there's no one she would rather wed
than me, even if Jove himself had sought her.
She says-but what a woman tells an eager lover
should be inscribed on wind and running water.
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