Ovide citations

Page 2

“Crédule enfant, à quoi bon ces vains efforts pour saisir une fugitive apparence? L'objet de ton désir n'existe pas!… Cette ombre que tu vois, c'est le reflet de ton image.”

“L'Amour est un maître bien plus impérieux et bien plus cruel pour ceux qui ne se laissent pas faire que pour ceux qui se reconnaissent ses esclaves.”

“S'il est quelqu'un de notre peuple à qui l'art d'aimer soit inconnu, qu'il lise ce poème, et, instruit par sa lecture, qu'il aime. C'est l'art avec lequel la voile et la rame sont maniées qui permet aux vaisseaux de voguer rapidement, l'art qui permet aux chars de courir légèrement : l'art doit gouverner l'Amour. Automédon excellait à manier un char et les rêves flexibles; Tiphys était le pilote de la poupe hémonienne. Moi, Vénus m'a donné comme maître au jeune Amour; c'est le Tiphys et l'Automédon de l'Amour que l'on me nommera.”

“J'allais chanter, sur le rythme héroïque, les armes, la fureur des combats; au sujet convenait le maître : le second vers était égal au premier. On dit que Cupidon se mit à rire et qu'il y retrancha furtivement un pied.”

“Déjà la moisson grandit aux lieux où fut Troie.”

“J'ai formé le dessein de conter les métamorphoses des êtres en des formes nouvelles. O dieux (car ces transformations furent, elles aussi, votre œuvre), favorisez mon entreprise et guidez le déroulement ininterrompu de mon poème depuis l'origine même du monde jusqu'à ce temps qui est le mien.”

“ÉPIGRAMME
Ouvrage de Nason, nous étions naguère cinq livres : nous ne sommes plus que trois. L'auteur a préféré cette forme à la première. À supposer que, maintenant, tu n'éprouves aucun plaisir à nous lire, du moins ta peine sera diminuée des deux livres supprimés.”

“Voulez-vous ne pas rester oisifs? Aimez.”

“Take rest; a field that has rested gives a beautiful crop.”

“Eurydice, dying now a second time, uttered no complaint against her husband. What was there to complain of, but that she had been loved?”

“Saepe creat molles aspera spina rosas" - "Often the prickly thorn produces tender roses”

“Barbarus hic ego sum, quia non intelligor illis.

(In this place I am a barbarian, because men do not understand me.)”

“Neither can the wave that has passed by be recalled, nor the hour which has passed return again.”

“All right, boy, skewer me. I've dropped my defenses,
I'm an easy victim. Why, by now
Your arrows practically know their own way to the target
And feel less at home in their quiver than in me.”

“Greatly he failed, but he had greatly dared.”

“or that writing a poem you can read to no one
is like dancing in the dark.”

“Nitimur in vetitum" -- "We strive after the forbidden”

“Someday this pain will be useful to you”

“It is right to learn even from an enemy.”

“My soul would sing of metamorphoses.
But since, o gods, you were the source of these
bodies becoming other bodies, breathe
your breath into my book of changes: may
the song I sing be seamless as its way
weaves from the world's beginning to our day.”

“Say that I live, but in such wise that I would not live.”
Vivere me dices, sed sic ut vivere nolim

“Let love steal in disguised as friendship.”
Intret amicitiae nomine tectus amor.

“The workmanship excelled the materials.”
Materiam superabat opus

“Now are fields of corn where Troy once stood.”
Iam seges est ubi Troia fuit.

“We all conceal
A god within us, we all deal
With heaven direct, from whose high places we derive
The inspiration by which we live.”
Est deus in nobis, et sunt commercia caeli: Sedibus aetheriis spiritus ille venit.

“I see better things, and approve, but I follow worse.”
Video meliora, proboque, deteriora sequor.

“Nor can one easily find among many thousands a single man who considers virtue its own reward. The very glory of a good deed, if it lacks reward, affects them not; unrewarded uprightness brings them regret. Nothing but profit is prized.”
Nec facile invenias multis in milibus unum, virtutem pretium qui putet esse sui. ipse decor, recte facti si praemia desint, non movet, et gratis paenitet esse probum. nil nisi quod prodest carum est.

“Gay was oft my song when I was gay, sad it is now that I am sad.”
Laeta fere laetus cecini, cano tristia tristis.

“Drops of water hollow out a stone.”
Gutta cavat lapidem

“So long as you are secure you will count many friends; if your life becomes clouded you will be alone.”
Donec eris sospes, multos numerabis amicos: tempora si fuerint nubila, solus eris.

“You will be safest in the middle.”
Medio tutissimus ibis.

“If she's cool and unwilling to be wooed,
Just take it, don't weaken; in time she'll soften her mood.
Bending a bough the right way, gently, makes
It easy; use brute force, and it breaks.
With swimming rivers it's the same—
Go with, not against, the current.”
Si nec blanda satis, nec erit tibi comis amanti, Perfer et obdura: postmodo mitis erit. Flectitur obsequio curvatus ab arbore ramus: Frangis, si vires experiere tuas. Obsequio tranantur aquae: nec vincere possis Flumina, si contra, quam rapit unda, nates.

“Though strength be lacking, yet the will is to be praised.”
Ut desint vires, tamen est laudanda voluntas.

“Young love is errant, but it needs to get around;
The time and practice make it strong and sound.
That bull you fear, you petted when it wasn't big;
What now you sleep beneath was once a twig.
That little stream, in gaining waters as it goes,
Grows stronger, till at last a river flows.”
Dum novus errat amor, vires sibi colligat usu: Si bene nutrieris, tempore firmus erit. Quem taurum metuis, vitulum mulcere solebas: Sub qua nunc recubas arbore, virga fuit: Nascitur exiguus, sed opes adquirit eundo, Quaque venit, multas accipit amnis aquas.

“Love yields to business. If you seek a way out of love, be busy; you'll be safe then.”
Qui finem quaeris amoris, Cedit amor rebus; res age, tutus eris.

“Who is allowed to sin, sins less.”
Cui peccare licet, peccat minus.

“Resist beginnings; the remedy comes too late when the disease has gained strength by long delays.”
Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur Cum mala per longas convaluere moras.