De Morte & Amore.[1]

Death and Love

Errabat socio Mors iuncta Cupidine, secum
Mors pharetras, parvus tela gerebat Amor.
Divertêre simul, simul una & nocte cubarunt,
Caecus Amor, Mors hoc tempore caeca fuit.
Alter enim alterius malè provida spicula sumpsit,
Mors aurata, tenet ossea tela puer.
Debuit inde senex qui nunc Acheronticus[2] esse,
Ecce amat, & capiti florea serta parat.
Ast ego mutato quia Amor me perculit arcu,
Deficio, iniiciunt & mihi fata manum.
Parce puer, Mors signa tenens victricia parce,
Fac ego amem, subeat fac Acheronta senex.

Death was travelling in company with Cupid. Death was carrying the quivers, little Love the arrows. They turned aside together, and slept beside each other that night. Love was blind, and Death too was blind at this time, for each took the other’s heedless arrows. Death has the golden ones, the boy the ones of bone. As a result, an old man who ought by now to be in the grave is - lo and behold - in love, and gets garlands of flowers for his head. But I, since Love struck me with his substitute bow, I am failing - the Fates lay their hand on me. Boy, show mercy. Death, holding the symbols of your triumph, do you show mercy. Cause me to love; cause the old man to go down to Hades.

Mors pallida inciderat fortuitu in Cupidi-
nem Deum Amoris, simulque unius dici iter
fecere, uterque arcus telaque ferens, appropin-
quante vero nocte, divertere ac dormivere
unà. Caecam autem tunc, tam Mortem quàm
Amorem fuisse apparet, permutatis enim ar-
mis alter alterius spicula sumpsit. Mors aura-
ta, puer verò ossea portabat, vulneraverat au-
tem Mors senem quaedam decrepitum, alte-
rum iam pedem in tumulo habentem, ecce
amare incipit, mox serta ex floribus compa-
cta capiti imponit, libidinisque ardore uritur.
Amor verò puerulum sauciaverat, qui excla-
mando se statim moriturum miserè conque-
ritur, Parce inquit, ô Cupido, mihi iuve-
ni: Mors nanque tuis utitur aureis
telis, quin potius facito ut ego
amem senex autem ille mo-
riatur. Et hoc haud rarò
contingit, ut alio-
rum errores,
aliis sint
noci-
vi.