LYDIA1 I ENVY you, ye fields and lovely meads, for this more lovely that my lovely girl is yours: in silence she sighs for my love. You it is she now sees, with you my Lydia plays, to you she now makes speech, on you she now smiles with those dear eyes, and cons my songs with voice subdued, and sings the while those strains she was wont to sing into my ear. 8 I envy you, ye fields; ye will learn to love. fields, too happy, yea, much blest, in which she will set her snowy footsteps, or with rosy fingers will pluck the green grape (for not yet swells the little vine with sweet juice), or amid varied flowers, tribute to Venus, she will lay down her limbs and crush the tender grass, and apart by herself will stealthily recount the tale of my love. The woods will rejoice, the soft meadows and cool springs will rejoice, and the birds will make a silence. The gliding brooks will pause (stay, ye waters!) till my heart sets forth its sweet complaints. 1 This sentimental lament is independent of the Dirac, but came to be associated with that poem because the name "Lydia" is common to both compositions. Invideo vobis, agri: mea gaudia habetis, et vobis nunc est mea quae fuit ante voluptas. at mihi tabescunt morientia membra dolore, et calor infuso decedit frigore mortis, 20 quod mea non mecum domina est. non ulla puella 25 Felix taure, pater magni gregis et decus, a te vaccula non umquam secreta cubilia captans frustra te patitur silvis mugire dolorem. et pater haedorum felix semperque beate, sive petis montis praeruptos, saxa pererrans, sive tibi silvis nova pabula fastidire 30 sive libet campis: tecum tua laeta capella est. 35 et mas quacumque est, illi sua femina iuncta Sidera per viridem redeunt cum pallida mundum, inque vicem Phoebi currens abit aureus orbis, Luna, tuus tecum est: cur non est et mea mecum ? Luna, dolor nosti quid sit: miserere dolentis. Phoebe, gerens nam laurus celebravit amorem ; et quae pompa deum, non silvis fama, locuta est ? (omnia vos estis) secum sua gaudia gestat 22 mihi Aldine edition 1517: inale (mala). tabescant. 24 ulla H: illa. 33 silvis L: silvas S: si vis M. 35 40 45 tabescunt It.: quacumque Ellis: quocumque (quicunque It.). 37 fuisti Salmasius: fuisset. 40 currens abit Eskuché: currens atque: coiens atque Ellis. 41 tuus b: tui. 43 nam Ellis in te. celebravit MFL: celebrabis Scaliger. 44 quae] qua est Vollmer. non It. nisi . 20 I envy you, ye fields; my joys ye possess, and now ye have her, who aforetime was my delight. But my dying limbs are wasting with grief, and warmth fails me, steeped in the chill of death, because my mistress is not with me. No girl on earth was more skilled or more lovely; and, if the tale be not false, then worthy of Jupiter as bull or as gold1 (turn thine ear aside, O Jupiter!), is my girl alone. 28 O happy bull, sire and pride of the mighty herd, never does the heifer, seeking stalls apart, suffer thee to low thy grief vainly to the woods. And thou, sire of the kids, happy and ever blest, whether thou, roaming o'er the rocks, seekest the steepy mountains or whether, in woods or on plains, it please thee to scorn fresh forage: with thee is thy happy mate. And wherever is a male, with him is ever joined his mate, and never has he bewailed an interrupted love. Why, O Nature, hast thou not with us too been kind? Why so oft do I suffer cruel grief? 39 When through the green heavens the pale stars come back, and in turn the golden orb of Phoebus departs on his course, thy love,2 O Moon, is with thee why is not mine also with me? O Moon, thou knowest what grief is: pity one who grieves. For he who bears thee, O Phoebus, celebrates love for the laurel; and what procession has told the story of a god, when fame has not told it in the woods? A god (ye gods are everywhere) carries his joys with him, 4 1 A reference to the myths of Europa and Danaë. 2 Endymion, whom Luna visited on Mount Latmos. 3.e. thy image in procession. Daphne, fleeing from the attention of Phoebus Apollo, was changed into a laurel. 4 e.g. Apollo carries with him the laurel, and Pan his pipes. aut insparsa videt mundo: quae dicere longum est. Ausus ego primus castos violare pudores, Iuppiter ante, sui semper mendacia factus, cum Iunone, prius coniunx quam dictus uterque est, gaudia libavit dulcem furatus amorem et moechum tenera gavisa est laedere in herba 54 vittam Ascensius 1507: vitam. 53 egon It. 55 mea Haupt me or meae. fata MFL: facta S. 56 facti ML: fati F: facta S. 58 ullo] nullo. 50 55 60 65 70 61 invida fata Heinsius: impia vota. 63 sui] cui Curcio. 66 moechum Baehrens: mecum (mea cum). 67 occumbebat F. 70 ille Petry (Curcio): illi. 68 bracchia It.: gaudia N. 71 malam ac Vollmer: mala (without ac). or sees them scattered through the world-to tell these would be a tedious task. Nay more, when the golden ages rolled their course, and mortals of those days were under like conditions-this also I pass over well we know the star of Minos' daughter, and the maiden who, as captive, followed her lord.1 Wherein, O denizens of heaven, could our age have injured you, that therefore life's conditions should be harder for us? 53 Was I the first who dared to sully the chaste purity and assail the hallowed fillet 2 of his love, that by my death I am forced to pay the due of an untimely Fate? And O that my fault were the first prompter of that deed! Then were death sweeter to me than life. No, not mine the fame that at any time would die, for 'twould be said that I first had stolen Love's sweet joys, and from me had sprung that sweet pleasure. Nay, the envious fates have not granted me a boon so great, that our misdeed should be the beginning of secret love. 63 Of yore Jupiter, who could at all times counterfeit false forms of himself, along with Juno, ere either was called a spouse, tasted the stolen joys of sweet love. The Cyprian, too, rejoiced that on the tender grass her lover3 crushed the brilliant flowers whereon she lay, as she threw her arms about his lovely neck. At that time Mars, methinks, had been detained in warfare, for as to Vulcan, he too, surely, was busy at work, and with unsightly soot was defiling cheek and 1 Ariadne, daughter of Minos, fled from Crete with Theseus, who abandoned her in Naxos. Dionysus, who found her there, raised her to the stars. 2 i.e. the ribbon worn by free-born women, maidens or married. 3 Adonis. whether |