Europa’s lament

Inpios parrae recinentis omen
ducat et praegnans canis aut ab agro
rava decurrens lupa Lanuvino
fetaque volpes;

rumpat et serpens iter institutum,
si per obliquum similis sagittae
terruit mannos: ego cui timebo,
providus auspex,

antequam stantis repetat paludes
imbrium divina avis imminentium,
oscinem corvum prece suscitabo
solis ab ortu.

sis licet felix, ubicumque mavis,
et memor nostri, Galatea, vivas
teque nec laevos vetet ire picus
nec vaga cornix.

sed vides, quanto trepidet tumultu
pronus Orion. ego quid sit ater
Hadriae novi sinus et quid albus
peccet Iapyx.

hostium uxores puerique caecos
sentiant motus orientis Austri et
aequoris nigri fremitum et trementis
verbere ripas.

sic et Europe niveum doloso
credidit tauro latus et scatentem
beluis pontum mediasque fraudes
palluit audax.

nuper in pratis studiosa florum et
debitae Nymphis opifex coronae
nocte sublustri nihil astra praeter
vidit et undas.

quae simul centum tetigit potentem
oppidis Creten, “pater, o relictum
filiae nomen pietasque” dixit
“victa furore!

unde quo veni? levis una mors est
virginum culpae. vigilansne ploro
turpe conmissum an vitiis carentem
ludit imago

vana, quae porta fugiens eburna
somnium ducit? meliusne fluctus
ire per longos fuit an recentis
carpere flores?

siquis infamem mihi nunc iuvencum
dedat iratae, lacerare ferro et
frangere enitar modo multum amati
cornua monstri.

inpudens liqui patrios Penates,
inpudens Orcum moror. o deorum
siquis haec audis, utinam inter errem
nuda leones.

antequam turpis macies decentis
occupet malas teneraeque sucus
defluat praedae, speciosa quaero
pascere tigris

“vilis Europe” pater urget absens:
“quid mori cessas? potes hac ab orno
pendulum zona bene te secuta
laedere collum.

sive te rupes et acuta leto
saxa delectant, age te procellae
crede veloci, nisi erile mavis
carpere pensum

regius sanguis dominaeque tradi
barbarae paelex.”” aderat querenti
perfidum ridens Venus et remisso
filius arcu.

mox ubi lusit satis, “abstineto”
dixit “irarum calidaeque rixae,
cum tibi invisus laceranda reddet
cornua taurus.

uxor invicti Iovis esse nescis.
mitte singultus, bene ferre magnam
disce fortunam; tua sectus orbis
nomina ducet.”

Let an inauspicious bird repeatedly calling, and a pregnant bitch, or a livid-grey she-wolf running down from the fields of Lanuvium, and a vixen which has just whelped be the omens that guide the impious on the road, and let a snake interrupt the journey they undertake, if one scares the horses from the side, like an arrow: I, however, am a provident prophet for the one I care for, and with a dawn prayer will summon the portent of a crow, bird prophetic of approaching rains, before it can return to its placid marshes. May you be happy, Galatea, wherever you care to live; do not forget me, and may no wandering raven or a woodpecker from your left keep you from your journey. But you can see with what an uproar Orion is trembling as he sets! I have learned myself what the black gulf of the Adriatic is like, and what damage the clear nor-nor-wester can do. May my enemies’ wives and children feel the blind rush as the south wind gets up, and the seething of the black waters, and the shoreline shuddering at the blow! Thus it was when Europa entrusted her white flank to the scheming bull, and in spite of her daring went pale at the ocean swarming with sea-creatures and its deep-water deceptions: only just now she had been absorbed in the flowers in the meadow and carefully crafting the crown she had promised the nymphs; now, in the obscurity of night, she could see nothing except the stars and the waves. No sooner had she reached Crete, powerful for its hundred towns, than “Father,” she said, “your daughter has forfeited her name and her duty, overcome by madness! Where have I been, where am I going?  One death is light penalty for virgins’ guilt! Am I awake as I deplore the sin I have committed, or is it an empty vision that is deceiving me, which has escaped from the ivory gate and brought me a dream? Was it better to travel far across the seas than to gather fresh flowers? I am furious, and if someone delivered that disgraceful bull-calf up to me now, I would do my best to slash it with the sword, and break the horns of the monster that I cared so much for just now! I was shameless to leave my father’s house, and I am shameless to shirk the underworld. O, if some God hears this, may I wander naked among lions! Before ugly wasting can take over my lovely cheeks and the moisture drain from their tender prey, I beg that tigers may feed on me while my beauty remains! “Base Europa,” my absent father is saying, “why do you hesitate to die? It is good that you brought your girdle, you can hang yourself from that ash-tree and break your neck! Or if cliffs and deadly-sharp rocks appeal to you, go on, trust yourself to the swift breeze, unless you would rather choose a budget of wool for a mistress to work, and, though your blood is royal, to be given to a barbarian mistress as a concubine!”” Venus was by, smiling perfidiously, as Europa made her lament, and Cupid, with his bow unstrung. When she had amused herself enough, “Don’t be angry,” she said, “and no hot brawling when the bull that you are so angry with brings back his horns for you to tear. What you don’t know, is that you are the bride of unconquerable Jove! Stop your sobbing and learn to bear your great good fortune: half the world will bear your name!”