Poems by Quintilius
Translated by Peter Russell
AN EARLY UNDATED ELEGY
Had I but the helmet of Pluto I would visit
this girl by night
And lie in her bed and caress her so gently she would believe
She was dreaming, or was innocent Psyche wrapped in the arms
Of golden Eros himself, and unstintingly yield her limbs.
Having enjoyed to the full her golden honey-sweet nakedness,
Still invisible, I would leave the house and not without malice rejoice
At the thought of her small greedy soul receiving back
Her stupid and unsuspecting but no longer too welcome husband, -
The bumpkin from City Hall.
BAD’UN
“There is now absolutely no doubt (historically)
that Quintilius
was present (as a neutral observer) at the Battle of Mount Baddon. He fell
into disgrace (after the event) for having made passes (severally)
at each of the three Queens.”
Prof. Jeli Diehls, Old Irish Glosses of the VIIth Century on Near Eastern
Affairs (Vomp, Tyrel, 1863), p. 384, Note 7.
TWO DAUGHTERS
Translated from a Boeotian papyrus
From Quintilii Apocalypseôs Fragmenta: from the Epigrammata
Who was that Epaminondas, you may ask,
Who left two immortal daughters? I too have left two daughters
To their devices – but they will not be immortal.
I am the son of corruption and of the worm,
And all my progeny will fare no better.
Devotion to the Muse is the father of whores –
It dries up equally the milk of the mother.
Pallas my example, without a mate I have conceived
Songs, - be these my descendants and my heirs . . .
Note: it would seem that Quintilius had in mind both Ovid, Met., II, 523
and Tristia, III, 14, 13. Whether Ariosto in Orlando furioso, XXXVII, 27 was
echoing Ovid or Quintlius is an open question for the philologists.
