Collected Works

You wept while leaving; refrain from denying at least this. That love is more shameful now that it has passed. You wept, and you saw my eyes as I wept; we mixed our mournful tears together. The elm is not so entwined by the clinging vines as your arms were locked around my neck. Ah, how often, when you complained that you were held by the wind, did your companions laugh? That wind was favorable. How many times did you give me kisses as I was left behind? How barely could your tongue sustain the word "farewell"?

A light breeze stirs the linen hanging from the rigid mast, and the water, churned up by oars, turns white. Unhappy, I follow the departing sails with my eyes where I am able, and the sand is dampened by my tears. And I pray to the green Nereids that you may return quickly—or rather, that you may come back quickly to my own ruin. Thus, you returned to my prayers, only to return to someone else. Woe is me, I was kind for a dreadful rival!

A natural mass overlooks the immense deep; it was a mountain, and it stands against the sea-waters. From here I first recognized the sails of your ship, and it was my impulse to go through the waves. While I waited, purple shone for me at the top of the prow. I was terrified; that dress was not yours. It came closer, and the ship touched the earth with a swift breeze. With a trembling heart, I saw feminine cheeks.

That was not enough; why, madwoman, did I linger? A disgraceful mistress was clinging to your lap. Then I wept, I tore my bodice, I beat my breast, and I cut my tear-stained cheeks with stiffened nails. I filled the sacred Ida with mournful wails; I carried these tears to my rocks there. May Helen suffer the same, may she weep, deserted by her husband, and may she herself bear what she first brought upon me. Now let them come with you, those who follow you through the open seas and abandon their legitimate husbands.

But when you were poor, and as a shepherd led your flocks, no one was the wife of the poor man except Oenone. I do not marvel at riches, nor does your palace touch me, nor do I care to be spoken of as one of the many daughters-in-law of Priam. Yet I am not so much that Priam should refuse to be the father-in-law of a nymph, or that I should be a daughter-in-law Hecuba must hide. I am worthy, and I desire to become the matron of a powerful man.