He seems to me, that one, equal to the gods, The man fixed there, who sits opposite you And hears close by your sweet voice And delightful laugh, which once Shook the soul in my breast. For as I look on you, My voice yields no sound, Gasping, my silent tongue shivers, A thin fire [...]

Infinite, O man, was the time until you came to light, and infinite is what remains after death: what share is left for life but the bigness of a dot, and tinier than a dot if such there be? Little is your life and afflicted; for not even so it is sweet, but more loathed [...]

I have completed a monument more lasting than bronze and far higher than that royal pile of Pyramids, which the gnawing rain and furious north wind cannot destroy, nor the chain of countless years and the flight of time. My end won’t be complete, and a great part of me will evade the death-god: I’ll [...]

The snows have fled, already the grass returns to the fields and leaves return to the trees. Earth is turning her changes, the rivers flow less strongly. Grace along with her Nymphs and twin sisters ventures naked to lead her bands of dancers. “Hope for immortality not”, warn the year and the hour that steal [...]

Some barbarian is boasting about my shield, since I threw that fine armour beside a bush, though against my will. But I saved my life, so what does it matter? Let the shield go; I will soon get a better one.

But what life would there be, what joy, without golden Aphrodite? May I die when I be no more concerned with secret love and honey-sweet gifts and the bed, Such things as are the very flower of youth, a delight to men and women alike. But when dolorous Age comes, which makes a man both [...]