Lygdamus 3.2

Question 1

Qui primus caram iuueni carumque puellae

eripuit iuuenem, ferreus ille fuit;

Answer 1

He was a man of iron who first carried off a dear girl

From her boy, and a dear boy from her girl

Question 2

durus et ille fuit, qui tantum ferre dolorem,

uiuere et erepta coniuge qui potuit.

Answer 2

He was a man of stone who, with his wife snatched away,

Was able to withstand such grief and survive.

Question 3

Non ego firmus in hoc, non haec patientia nostro

ingenio: frangit fortia corda dolor;

Answer 3

In this I am not sturdy. Nor is this steadiness

In my blood. Grief breaks the brave of heart.

Question 4

nec mihi uera loqui pudor est uitaeque fateri,

tot mala perpessae, taedia nata meae.

Answer 4

Nor am I ashamed to speak the truth and to admit my loathing

Of a life that has endured so many woes.

Question 5

Ergo cum tenuem fuero mutatus in umbram

candidaque ossa supra nigra fauilla teget,

Answer 5

So when I will be transformed into a wisp of shade

and my white bones black ash will overlay,

Question 6

ante meum ueniat longos incompta capillos

et fleat ante meum maesta Neaera rogum;

Answer 6

Let Neaera come to face my pyre, her long hair in disarray.

Let her weep in sadness as she faces it.

Question 7

sed ueniat carae matris comitata dolore:

maereat haec genero, maereat illa uiro.

Answer 7

Let her come companioned by her dear mother’s grief

One mourns a son-in-law; the other a husband mourns.

Question 8

Praefatae ante meos manes animamque precatae

perfusaeque pias ante liquore manus,

Answer 8

First they address my Manes and, with prayer, my soul;

First they purify their hands in water’s bath;

Question 9

pars quae sola mei superabit corporis, ossa

incinctae nigra candida ueste legent

Answer 9

Ungirdled, in robes of black, they gather my white bones –

My body’s only remnant to survive.

Question 10

et primum annoso spargent collecta lyaeo,

mox etiam niueo lacte parent,

Answer 10

Let them first sprinkle what they have gathered with mellow Lyaeus
Ready soon also to pour out snowy milk

Question 11

post haec carbaseis umorem tollere uelis

atque in marmorea ponere sicca domo.

Answer 11

Afterwards to blot up the moisture with linen cloths,

And bury them, dry, in their marble dwelling place.

Question 12

Illic quas mittit diues Panchaia merces

Eoique Arabes, diues et Assyria,

Answer 12

Thereon let the yield that rich Panchaia sends,

And the Eoan Arabes and rich Assyria,

Question 13

et nostri memores lacrimae fundantur eodem:

sic ego componi uersus in ossa uelim.

Answer 13

And tears in our memory be shed right then and there.

Thus, now turned to bone, I want to be buried.

Question 14

Sed tristem mortis demonstret littera causam

atque haec in celebri carmina fronte notet:

Answer 14

But let writing testify to my death’s sad cause

and with these lines engrave for all to see:

Question 15

LYGDAMVS HIC SITVS EST: DOLOR HVIC ET CVRA NEAERAE,

CONIVGIS EREPTAE, CAVSA PERIRE FVIT

Answer 15

Here lies Lygdamus; his heart rending love for Neaera,

the wife taken from him, was the cause of his death.