Latin Poetry and Latin Lovers II

Ovid: a midday recreation

Here, dozing at midday, Ovid is energised by the unexpected arrival of the lovely, seductive Corinna; Ovid compares her appearance to that of the famously beautiful courtesans Semiramis and Lais. Like her frock, the fun of the poem (here in my translation) is that it leaves to the imagination as much as it eventually reveals to his male gaze - which is already far more than we would normally expect from a Latin love poet.

                                                                      *  *  *

   Midday: a long, hot afternoon ahead;                  
   I threw my weary body on the bed.
   The shutters, propped half-open for the breeze
   cast dappled beams like sunlight through the trees:
   the light that comes from sun’s departing ray,
   or when night ends and yields to break of day,
   the hazy light that decent girls require
   to guard the reputation they desire.

   In comes Corinna, clad in low-slung frock,
   her neck agleam, each side a tumbling lock:
   So lovely Semiramis (it is said)
   and much-laid Lais would make their way to bed.
   I tore the frock off!  Little though it hid,
   she fought to keep it on - a token bid,
   for since she didn't really fight to win,
   my victory was easy: she gave in.

   Clothes cast aside, she stood in front of me,
   from head to toe a body blemish-free.
   What arms to gaze on, shoulders to caress!
   What nipples standing proud to stroke and press.
   A slender waist beneath a shapely rise;
   Such lissom hips, such firm and youthful thighs.
   Why itemize? No part but was divine.
   I pulled her naked body hard to mine.

   The rest you know. Worn out, we slept entwined.
   May I have many middays of this kind!

[The English version can be heard here:]

                                                             Aestus erat, mediamque dies exegerat horam;
                                                                adposui medio membra levanda toro.
                                                             pars adaperta fuit, pars altera clausa fenestrae.
                                                                quale fere siluae lumen habere solent,
                                                             qualia sublucent fugiente crepuscula Phoebo                    
                                                                aut ubi nox abiit nec tamen orta dies.
                                                             illa verecundis lux est praebenda puellis,
                                                                qua timidus latebras speret habere pudor.

                                                             ecce, Corinna venit tunica velata recincta,
                                                                candida dividua colla tegente coma,                                   
                                                             qualiter in thalamos formosa Sameramis isse
                                                                dicitur et multis Lais amata viris.
                                                             deripui tunicam! nec multum rara nocebat,
                                                                pugnabat tunica sed tamen illa tegi;
                                                             quae, cum ita pugnaret tamquam quae vincere nollet,     
                                                                victa est non aegre proditione sua.

                                                             ut stetit ante oculos posito velamine nostros,
                                                                 in toto nusquam corpore menda fuit:
                                                             quos umeros, quales vidi tetigique lacertos!
                                                                forma papillarum quam fuit apta premi.
                                                             quam castigato planus sub pectore venter!
                                                                quantum et quale latus! quam iuvenale femur!
                                                             singula quid referam? nil non laudabile vidi,
                                                                et nudam pressi corpus ad usque meum.

                                                             cetera quis nescit? lassi requieuimus ambo,
                                                                proveniant medii sic mihi saepe dies.

[The Latin original can be heard here:]