FROM BUCHANNAN.
Reading edition
———
BY RICHARD PENN SMITH.
———
IN ZOILUM.
Frustra ego te laudo; frustra me Zoile lædis
Nemo mihi credit, Zoile, nemo tibi.
TO ZOILUS.
Zoilus, in vain thy praise I spread;
And vainly thou hast slandered me!
No one believed a word I said,
No one on earth would credit thee.
—
Qui te videt beaties est;
Beatior qui te audiet
Qui basiat—semi deus est!
TRANSLATION.
He who beholds thy charms is blest;
More blest is he thy voice who hears;
But he thy ruby lip that pressed,
To me a demi-god appears.
The above was unquestionably suggested by the lines of Catullus to Lesbia, beginning—
Ille mi par esse Deo videtur
Ille, si fas est, superare Divos
Qui sedens adversus identidem te
Spectat, et audit, etc.
This poem of Catullus is nothing more than a translation from the Greek of Sappho, which has been rendered familiar by Ambrose Phillips’ version.
“Blest as the immortal gods is he;
The youth who fondly sits by thee:
Who hears and sees thee, all the while,
Softly speak and sweetly smile, etc.”
It would seem that Horace when composing his beautiful ode of “Integer Vitæ,” had these verses of Sappho in mind, when he exclaims—
Dulce ridentem, Lalagen amabo
Dulce loquentem.
The “Dulce ridentum” is also beautifully applied in the translation by Catullus.