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Renovatio Amoris [33]


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66 ↓
Renouatio Amoris.translation
XXXIII.
Ouid.
Quisquis es, antiqui remoue monumenta caloris,
A regno Dominæ qui modo liber abis.
Vera nec ora vide, moueat nec imago saliuam,
Nec digitis gemmas, quas tulit illa, gere.
Fax exstincta recens trahit, ah! trahit eminus ignem,
Et redit in flammam quod vapor antè fuit.
Sic nisi vitaris quidquid reuocabit Amorem,
Flamma recandescit quæ modò nulla fuit. translation

Plutar. Paul.
AMor quamquam discedit aut tempore, aut ra-
tione victus, non tamen penitus relinquit ani-
mam, remanetque in eâ vestigium veluti siluæ
exustæ aut fumantis. res de facili redit ad suam
naturam. translation

Iuuen.
-----Et ad mores natura recurret
Damnatos. translation

Lucret.
Sed fugitare decet simulacra & pabula Amoris
Abstergere sibi, atque alio conuertere mentem. translation

[66a] ↓

De facili natura recurrit. translation

Ainsi bien tost se r'allume,
Le coeur au quel amour fume.

67 ↓
Renouuellement de l'Amour.
XXXIII.
Si lors que nos Amours esteignent leurs chandelles,
Celle aussy du diuin s'esteignoit auecq elles,
Qui pourroit esperer de r'allumer ces feux?
Mais puis que ce flambeau ne perdi iamais ses flames,
Lors que le nostre meurt, approchons en nos ames,
Nous les veoirons bien tost viure & brusler tous deux.

Presto se buelue à encender
Si es recien muerta la llama
En el pecho, de quien ama.

Vertoeft/ o ziele/ wacht noch wat/
Anders de vlāme heeft haest hervat.

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66

[66a]

67

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Translations

Renewal of love.
You whoever you are who leaves the mistress's realm, remove what
reminds you of old passion, just so you be free.
Neither regard real faces, nor let an image make your mouth water
And do not wear precious stones on your fingers that she once wore.
A torch, above all one only recently quenched, draws, yes, drags fire towards itself
And what previously was vapour becomes flame again.
Unless you eschew anything that recalls your love,
The flame flares up that a moment ago was nothing at all.
Although love goes away, overcome by time and reason, still it does not leave the soul totally, and there remains the trace of as it were a burnt out or smoking forest.
Nature will return to the ways once condemned1.
But it is fitting to flee2 the visions and wipe off the fodder of love3, and turn the mind elsewhere.
The matter easily returns to what it really is4.

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Literature


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    Sources and parallels


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    References, across this site, to this page:


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    Iconclass

    While a cupid hides under the table, a young woman uses a candle to rekindle another one; a young man watching

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    Comments

    commentary

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    Notes

    1
    Et [not in text Juvenal] ad mores natura recurret ['recurrit' in text Juv.]/Damnatos. Iuvenalis 13, 239-240 ("Nature will return to the ways once comdemned").
    2
    'Sed fugitare decet ...', Lucret. IV, 1040 or thereabouts. The text of Lucretius has been heavily emended (e.g. extensive verse transpositions) by modern editors.
    3
    'Abstergere': "wipe off". Note that ed. Bailey has 'abterrere' here "frighten off". "But it is fitting to flee the visions and wipe off the fodder of love, and turn the the mind elsewhere". 'Pabula' translated here as "fodder" as Lucretius is trying to wean his readers off the passion of love. However, 'pabula' can be neutral: 'food', 'nourishment'. The 'simulacra' ('visions') refer to the typically Epicurean/Lucretian concept of eidola/simulacra, pictures made up of very fine atoms (like what dreams are made of), to account for the phenomenon that we 'see' things that have no clearly observable counterparts in reality.
    4
    'De facili natura recurrit': for this, and in fact the whole subscription cf. Hor. Epist. I, 10, 24 "Naturam expellas [expelles in modern editions] furca, tamen usque recurret" ("You may drive out Nature with a pitchfork, yet she will ever hurry back", transl. Rushton Fairclough, Loeb ed.).