第43章

But let her face possess what charm ye will, Let Venus' glory rise from all her limbs,-Forsooth there still are others; and forsooth We lived before without her; and forsooth She does the same things- and we know she does-All, as the ugly creature, and she scents, Yes she, her wretched self with vile perfumes;Whom even her handmaids flee and giggle at Behind her back.But he, the lover, in tears Because shut out, covers her threshold o'er Often with flowers and garlands, and anoints Her haughty door-posts with the marjoram, And prints, poor fellow, kisses on the doors-Admitted at last, if haply but one whiff Got to him on approaching, he would seek Decent excuses to go out forthwith;And his lament, long pondered, then would fall Down at his heels; and there he'd damn himself For his fatuity, observing how He had assigned to that same lady more-Than it is proper to concede to mortals.

And these our Venuses are 'ware of this.

Wherefore the more are they at pains to hide All the-behind-the-scenes of life from those Whom they desire to keep in bonds of love-In vain, since ne'ertheless thou canst by thought Drag all the matter forth into the light And well search out the cause of all these smiles;And if of graceful mind she be and kind, Do thou, in thy turn, overlook the same, And thus allow for poor mortality.

Nor sighs the woman always with feigned love, Who links her body round man's body locked And holds him fast, making his kisses wet With lips sucked into lips; for oft she acts Even from desire, and, seeking mutual joys, Incites him there to run love's race-course through.

Nor otherwise can cattle, birds, wild beasts, And sheep and mares submit unto the males, Except that their own nature is in heat, And burns abounding and with gladness takes Once more the Venus of the mounting males.

And seest thou not how those whom mutual pleasure Hath bound are tortured in their common bonds?

How often in the cross-roads dogs that pant To get apart strain eagerly asunder With utmost might?- When all the while they're fast In the stout links of Venus.But they'd ne'er So pull, except they knew those mutual joys-So powerful to cast them unto snares And hold them bound.Wherefore again, again, Even as I say, there is a joint delight.

And when perchance, in mingling seed with his, The female hath o'erpowered the force of male And by a sudden fling hath seized it fast, Then are the offspring, more from mothers' seed, More like their mothers; as, from fathers' seed, They're like to fathers.But whom seest to be Partakers of each shape, one equal blend Of parents' features, these are generate From fathers' body and from mothers' blood, When mutual and harmonious heat hath dashed Together seeds, aroused along their frames By Venus' goads, and neither of the twain Mastereth or is mastered.Happens too That sometimes offspring can to being come In likeness of their grandsires, and bring back Often the shapes of grandsires' sires, because Their parents in their bodies oft retain Concealed many primal germs, commixed In many modes, which, starting with the stock, Sire handeth down to son, himself a sire;Whence Venus by a variable chance Engenders shapes, and diversely brings back Ancestral features, voices too, and hair.