“Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno.”
Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at ease.
I, i, 39
Tristia (Sorrows)
Quotes from bookTristia
The Tristia is a collection of letters written in elegiac couplets by the Augustan poet Ovid during his exile from Rome. Despite five books of his copious bewailing of his fate, the immediate cause of Augustus's banishment of the most acclaimed living Latin poet to Pontus in AD 8 remains a mystery. In addition to the Tristia, Ovid wrote another collection of elegiac epistles on his exile, the Epistulae ex Ponto. He spent several years in the outpost of Tomis and died without ever returning to Rome.
“Poetry comes fine-spun from a mind at ease.”
Carmina proveniunt animo deducta sereno.
I, i, 39
Tristia (Sorrows)
“The greater a man is, the more can his wrath be appeased; a noble spirit is capable of kindly impulses. For the noble lion 'tis enough to have overthrown his enemy; the fight is at an end when his foe is fallen. But the wolf, the ignoble bears harry the dying and so with every beast of less nobility. At Troy what have we mightier than brave Achilles? But the tears of the aged Dardanian he could not endure.”
Quo quisque est maior, magis est placabilis irae,
et faciles motus mens generosa capit.
corpora magnanimo satis est prostrasse leoni,
pugna suum finem, cum iacet hostis, habet:
at lupus et turpes instant morientibus ursi
et quaecumque minor nobilitate fera.
maius apud Troiam forti quid habemus Achille?
Dardanii lacrimas non tulit ille senis.
III, v, 33; translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler
"the aged Dardanian" here refers to Priam
Tristia (Sorrows)
“Ants never head for an empty granary:
no friends gather round when your wealth is gone.”
Horrea formicae tendunt ad inania numquam:
nullus ad amissas ibit amicus opes.
I, ix, 9-10; translation by A.S. Kline
Tristia (Sorrows)
“Well doth he live who lives retired, and keeps
His wants within the limit of his means.”
Crede mihi, bene qui latuit bene vixit, et intra
Fortunam debet quisque manere suam.
Variant translation: Believe me that he who has passed his time in retirement, has lived to a good end, and it behoves every man to live within his means
III, iv, 26
Tristia (Sorrows)
“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.
I, ix, 5
Tristia (Sorrows)
“Say that I live, but in such wise that I would not live.”
Vivere me dices, sed sic ut vivere nolim
III, vii, 7; translation by Arthur Leslie Wheeler
Tristia (Sorrows)
