Odes by Horace

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THE ODES AND CARMEN SAECULARE OF HORACE

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CUM TU, LYDIA.


Telephus--you praise him still,

His waxen arms, his rosy-tinted neck;

Ah! and all the while I thrill

With jealous pangs I cannot, cannot check.

See, my colour comes and goes,

My poor heart flutters, Lydia, and the dew,

Down my cheek soft stealing, shows

What lingering torments rack me through and through.

Oh, 'tis agony to see

Those snowwhite shoulders scarr'd in drunken fray,

Or those ruby lips, where he

Has
left strange marks, that show how rough his play! Never, never look to find

A faithful heart in him whose rage can harm

Sweetest lips, which Venus kind

Has
tinctured with her quintessential charm. Happy, happy, happy they

Whose living love, untroubled by all strife,

Binds them till the last sad day,

Nor parts asunder but with parting life!





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