An Epigram of Martial
Amissum non flet cum sola est Gellia patrem,
si quis adest, iussae prosiliunt lacrimae.
non luget quisquis laudari, Gellia, quaerit;
ille dolet vere qui sine teste dolet.In private she mourns not the late-lamented;
If someone’s by her tears leap forth on call.
Sorrow, my dear, is not so easily rented.
They are true tears that without witness fall.
This is Martial 1.33, not precisely a joke, but neatly translated by J. V. Cunningham. The meter is elegiac couplets.
Comments Off on An Epigram of Martial
No Comments
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.