Sulpicia I
Salvete Omnes,
Starting this week I’ll be translating the Roman author Sulpicia. She is one of the only women we have written work from in Ancient Rome, and I’m excited to take a look at her perspective. Thank you to The Latin Library for the text, and I’m using a translation by Lee Pearcy as a reference point.
Tandem venit amor, qualem texisse pudori
quam nudasse alicui sit mihi fama magis.
Exorata meis illum Cytherea Camenis
adtulit in nostrum deposuitque sinum.
Exsolvit promissa Venus: mea gaudia narret,
dicetur siquis non habuisse sua.
Non ego signatis quicquam mandare tabellis,
ne legat id nemo quam meus ante, velim,
sed peccasse iuvat, vultus conponere famae
taedet: cum digno digna fuisse ferar.
Finally love comes, the kind which, if it is protected,
Stirs rumor to a greater extent than to be laid bare to someone.
The supplicated Cytherea brought love to my songs
And placed love in my breast.
Venus has released the promise: she narrates my joy,
Even if anyone is said not to have heard it.
I would not want to entrust anything,
Having been marked into a tablet,
In order that nobody would read it before my love,
It is weary to arrange one’s face to rumor,
Let me be said to have been a worthy lover with a worthy love.
I LOVE LOVE POEMS oh my goodness. I had such a good time translating this. This poem is wonderful! It feels very timeless and relatable, reading it instills a sense of companionship with Sulpicia.
Some notes that I had about translation: this poem makes a little more sense in Latin, but essentially, this poem talks about how the author wants to tell people about how she is in love. She says that it’s less suspicious to talk about love than to hide it, and that anyone who hasn’t heard about it is definitely going to, Aphrodite has promised that much. She also says that she doesn’t want to write it all down, because what if the wrong person reads it before her lover? She doesn’t want to have to hide her love, she wants to be proud of it.
Sulpicia is known to have been in love with a man named Cerinthus, a pseudonym. This references the common practice by male poets to use a pseudonym for female lovers. Sulpicia’s work turns conventions on their head, she is not modest in her proclamations of love, she shares them. This is uncommon for Roman tradition at the time. Her work is centered in being proud of her love, which I really enjoy.
Valete,
Isadora
