“Death is an ill; ’tis thus the Gods decide: / For had death been a boon, the Gods had died.”

How love the limb-loosener sweeps me away.

Mere air, these words, but delicious to hear.

Experience shows us Wealth unchaperoned by Virtue is never an innocuous neighbor.

Hesperus bringing together All that the morning star scattered.

The moon is setand the Pleiades; Middle ofthe night, time passes by,I lie alone.

Builders, raise the ceiling high, Raise the dome into the sky, Hear the wedding song! For the happy groom is near, Tall as Mars, and statelier, Hear the wedding song!

Without warning as a whirlwind swoops on an oak Love shakes my heart.

The evening star Is the most beautiful of all stars.

From all the offspring of the earth and heaven love is the most precious.

I took my lyre and said: come now, my heavenly tortoise shell: become a speaking instrument.

Beauty endures only for as long as it can be seen; goodness, beautiful today, will remain so tomorrow.

You may forget but let me tell you this: someone in some future time will think of us.

Although only breath, words which I command are immortal.

The moon has set, and the Pleiades; it is midnight, and time passes, and I sleep alone.

Love shook my heart/ Like the wind on the mountain/ Troubling the oak-trees.

May I write words more naked than flesh, stronger than bone, more resilient than sinew, sensitive than nerve.