LESBIA forever on me rails.

That I may give the last gifts to the dead,And vainly parley with thine ashes dumb:Since she who now bestows and now deniesHath ta’en thee, hapless brother, from mine eyes.But lo! these gifts, the heirlooms of past years,Are made sad things to grace thy coffin shell;Take them, all drenched with a brother’s tears,And, brother, for…

my girl’s sparrow is dead,my girl’s beloved sparrow.She loved him more than herself.He was sweeter than honey, and heknew her, as she knows her mother.He never flew out of her lap,but, hopping about here and there,just chirped to his lady, alone.Now he is flying the darkno one ever returns from.Evil to you, evil Shadesof Orcus,…

may they be worth less than nothing to us!Suns may set, and suns may rise again:but when our brief light has set,night is one long everlasting sleep.Give me a thousand kisses, a hundred more,another thousand, and another hundred,and, when we’ve counted up the many thousands,confuse them so as not to know them all,so that no…

not to be challenged for speedby any vessel afloat, whetherdriven by sail or the labour of oars.The threatening Adriatic coast won’t deny it,nor the isles of the Cyclades,nor noble Rhodes, nor fearful Bosphorus,nor the grim bay of the Black Seawhere, before becoming a boat, she wasleafy wood: for on the heights of Cytorusshe often hissed…

to show this final honour to the dead,and speak (to what purpose?) to your silent ashes,since now fate takes you, even you, from me.Oh, Brother, ripped away from me so cruelly,now at least take these last offerings, blessedby the tradition of our parents, gifts to the dead.Accept, by custom, what a brother’s tears drown,and, for…

my girl’s sparrow is dead,sparrow, the girl’s delight,whom she loved more than her eyes.For he was sweet as honey, and knew heras well as the girl her own mother,he never moved from her lap,but, hopping about here and there,chirped to his mistress alone.Now he goes down the shadowy roadfrom which they say no one returns.Now…