Who was the first to forge the deadly blade?
Of rugged steel his savage soul was made.
By him, his bloody flag ambition waved
And grisly carnage through the battle raged
<Tibullus>
Ode (In Ancient Meter)
I never thought I would ever learn to die;*
Forever young, wrapped in my mantle,
I rose my dreaming eyes to the star
Of solitude.
When suddenly you rose across my way -
Suffering, you, so painfully sweet;
To the bottom I drank the voluptuousness
Of the ruthless Death.
Wretched I burn alive tormented like Nessus,
Or like Hercules by his own harness poisoned –
My fire can’t be quenched by all the waters
Of the seas.
By my own dream consumed, I’m whining…
On my own pyre I’m melting in flames;
Can I ever brightly revive from it
Like the Phoenix?
Let all the disturbing eyes, from my path now vanish,
To my bosom return, sad coldness;**
So I can die in peace, to myself give back
The me.