63. Answers to exercises Copy

a

Come to hear my instructions, deceived young men,

each whom his own love has cheated in every way.

Learn how to be healed through the man through whom you learned how to love;

one hand will bring both wound and help to you.

The same earth produces health-giving herbs and harmful ones,

and the rose is often next to the stinging-nettle;

the spear of Pelian Achilles which had once made a wound in his enemy, the son of Hercules,

brought help for the wound.

But whatever has been said to men, believe to have been said also to you, girls:

I give arms to the opposing sides.

If any of these things is not relevant to your needs,

nonetheless it can teach many things by example.

It is a useful aim to extinguish savage flames

and to have a heart that is not the slave of its own failings.

If the impious Scylla had read my little books,

the purple lock of hair would have stayed stuck to your head, Nisus.

With me as leader, control your destructive passions, men,

and let the ship along with its crew go straight with me as leader.