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You, you Graecinus – I certainly remember – denied to me
that anyone could love two girls at one time.
Through you I am deceived, through you I am caught unarmed –
look, I shamefully love two girls at one time!
Each is beautiful, both are dedicated to accomplishments;
it is in doubt whether this one or that one is ahead in skills.
That one is more beautiful than this one, this one is also more beautiful than that one;
both this one pleases me more, and that one pleases me more!
I wander like a yacht driven by contrary winds,
and one love and the other hold me divided.
Why, lady of Eryx (i.e. Venus) do you double my griefs without end?
Wasn’t one girl enough to cause cares?
Why add leaves to trees, why add stars to a full sky,
why add collected waters to the deep sea?
But nonetheless this is better than if I were lying without love –
may an austere life happen to my enemies!
May it happen to my enemies to sleep in a lonely bed
and to place their limbs loosely in the middle of the bed!