Page:The poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus - Francis Warre Cornish.djvu/105



heart they say that she uttered piercing cries from her inmost breast; and now would she sadly climb the rugged mountains, thence to strain her eyes over the waste of ocean-tide; now run out to meet the waters of the rippling brine, lifting the soft vesture of her bared knee. And thus said she mournfully in her last laments, uttering cold sobs with tearful face: —

' Thus then, having borne me afar from my father's ' home, faithless lover, thus hast thou left me, faith- ' less Theseus, on the lonely shore? thus departing, 'unmindful of the will of the gods, forgetful, ah! dost ' thou carry to thy home the curse of perjury? could ' nothing bend the purpose of thy cruel mind? was ' no mercy present in thy soul, to bid thy ruthless ' heart incline to pity for me? Not such were the 'promises thou gavest me once with winning voice, t o ' not this didst thou bid me hope, ah me! no, but ' a joyful wedlock, but a desired espousal; all which ' at once the winds of heaven blow abroad in vain. ' Henceforth let no woman believe a man's oath, let ' none believe that a man's speeches can be trust- ' worthy. They, while their mind desires something ' and longs eagerly to gain it, nothing fear to swear, ' nothing spare to promise; but as soon as the lust ' of their greedy mind is satisfied, they fear not then ' their words, they heed not their perjuries. I — thou ' knowest it — when thou wert tossing in the very whirl ' of death, saved thee, and set my heart rather to let rso ' my brother go than to fail thee, now so faithless ' found, in thy utmost need. And for this I shall be ' given to beasts and birds to tear as a prey; my corpse ' shall have no sepulture, be sprinkled with no earth. ' What lioness bore thee under a desert rock? what 'sea conceived thee and vomited thee forth from his

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