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Elegies Book 1 1.1-28

Translated from Latin by Shaina M. Anderson

Divitias alius fulvo sibi congerat auro
     Et teneat culti iugera multa soli,
Quem labor adsiduus vicino terreat hoste,

     Martia cui somnos classica pulsa fugent:
Me mea paupertas vita traducat inerti, 
     Dum meus adsiduo luceat igne focus.
Ipse seram teneras maturo tempore vites
     Rusticus et facili grandia poma manu;
Nec spes destituat, sed frugum semper acervos
     Praebeat et pleno pinguia musta lacu. 
Nam veneror, seu stipes habet desertus in agris
     Seu vetus in trivio florida serta lapis,
Et quodcumque mihi pomum novus educat annus,
     Libatum agricolae ponitur ante deo.
Flava Ceres, tibi sit nostro de rure corona 
     Spicea, quae templi pendeat ante fores,
Pomosisque ruber custos ponatur in hortis,
     Terreat ut saeva falce Priapus aves.
Vos quoque, felicis quondam, nunc pauperis agri
     Custodes, fertis munera vestra, Lares. 
Tunc vitula innumeros lustrabat caesa iuvencos,
     Nunc agna exigui est hostia parva soli.
Agna cadet vobis, quam circum rustica pubes
     Clamet “io messes et bona vina date.”
Iam modo iam possim contentus vivere parvo 
     Nec semper longae deditus esse viae,
Sed Canis aestivos ortus vitare sub umbra
     Arboris ad rivos praetereuntis aquae.

Latin text from J. P. Postgate, Tibulli aliorumque Carminum libri Tres 
(Oxford: Oxford UP, 1915).



Shaina Anderson    81

Let another man heap up riches with gleaming gold,
     Let him possess many acres of cultivated soil,
Let relentless toil frighten away one with an enemy lying near,

     Let blaring war-trumpets invade one’s slumber.
Let my humble means lead me through a quiet existence, 
     As long as my hearth glows with a persistent fire.
Let me, as a farmer, sow delicate grape-vines in proper season,
    Let me plant magnificent saplings with effortless caress:
Let Hope not falter, but let the harvests of fruit continuously
     Abound and fresh wine overflow from a brimming vat. 
For I am reverent, in fields where reside a neglected tree-trunk
     Or ancient stone, at a cross-roads abloom with offerings,
And whatsoever specimen of tree the new year matures for me,
     It is placed as an offering before the divinity of cultivation.
Golden-locked Ceres, let hang a crown of wheaten spikes made 
     From my countryside, on the front doors of the temple.
And let ruddy-faced Priapus be stationed in the fruit-gardens,
     So that as a guard he intimidates the birds with his savage scythe,
You too, as guardians of once-prosperous land, now receive
     Our gift of a small crop, Household Lares. 
Then, the sacrificial calf was purifying countless young bulls,
     Now, the ewe is a slender sacrifice from my little portion of land:
The ewe will take the fall for us, around whom let the 
     Rustic youths invoke: “Oh, bequeath great harvests and great wine!”
Now, if only I am content to subsist by modest means, 
     Not perpetually given over to a long life…
But let me avoid the summer heat of the rising Dog-star,
     Under the shadow of a tree, near streams of trickling water!

*****

The soldier and poet Albius Tibullus was born east of Rome 
in Pedum or Gabii between 60-55 BCE. According to an epigram 
attributed to Domitius Marsus, Tibullus died sometime after 
Vergil’s death in 19 BCE. The first book of his corpus was written 
around 27 BCE and was associated closely with his patron, the 
general and orator, Valerius Mesalla Corvinus, and a group of 
fellow poets including Gallus, Catullus, Propertius, and Ovid. They 
emulated the 6-5th century BCE Greek lyric poets, and wrote in the 



82    Tibullus

meter of elegiac couplets used by Callimachus, a 3rd century BCE 
Hellenic scholar from Cyrene. The first line in an elegiac couplet 
is in the meter of epic poetry, the dactyl hexameter, followed by 
the second in pentameter verse comprised of two 2.5-dactyl-units 
separated by a diaresis, which permits a strong break in sense. 
Elegiac meter represents a deliberate and emphatic turn from 
the hexameter verse of epic poetry and its weighty themes of war 
and history, and heavy didacticism to elegiac themes of Roman 
poetry. The elegiac genre features highly personal and reflexive 
expressions of invective, lamentation, and unrequited romantic 
love, often in pastoral and rustic settings, and features “learned” 
or “Alexandrian” allusions.

Tibullus’s corpus is well-known known for the influence of 
Vergil’s Eclogues and Georgics, which feature idyllic pastoral 
settings. In particular, poem 1.10 is shrouded in mournful 
anticipation of leaving the beloved countryside for his first military 
campaign. Tibullus expresses vehement distaste for military 
service and the acquisition of material goods or “war-plunder” 
as a means to personal wealth and societal prestige. Thus, his 
poetry is heavily entrenched in the belief that wealth leads to 
the degradation of morality and romantic love, which is already 
evident in the beginning lines of book one.

A few lines posed particular challenges in my translation of 1.1. 
In line 8, I translate the reference to the cultivation of crops, “facili…
manu,” which is literally “with an easy hand” as “with a careful 
caress.” The poet is conveying the cultivation or nourishment of 
the crops, and so the manu or “hand” represents the gentle touch 
of the hand that cares physically for the plants. In Line 22, I chose 
an idiomatic translation, “the ewe will take the fall/die for us” rather 
than the literal “the ewe will be sacrificed/atone for us (for our 
wrongdoing).” The idiom is less passive in nature which conveys 
a dual active/passive nature of the verbal action. According to 
Roman religious rites, an animal must demonstrate a willing and 
calm demeanor (albeit, anthropomorphic) to be considered fit for 
sacrifice. In this regard, the English idiom captures the active and 
passive sense of the Latin verb.

For Tibullus’ repetition of words or anaphora, I adhered to the 
sense of the verbal imagery: I translate the terreat on line 3 as 
“frighten” due to the sense of potential violence from an intruder 
or robber, while the second instance of the same verb in line 
18 pertains to the passive intimidation of the scarecrow in the 
rusticus’ garden. In Roman times, the physical manifestation of 



Shaina Anderson    83

the mythological character Priapus was often featured in gardens 
as a little painted red statue functioning as a scarecrow. The act 
of swinging a saeva falce or “savage scythe” toward an intruder 
in the garden has undertones of violence and rape, but the action 
is passive because the statue does not move. A metrical sense 
break occurs at the precise textual moment the violent harvest 
instrument is described: when reading aloud in meter, the reader 
pauses naturally as the imagery synchronizes a metrical “hiccup” 
that mimics the unexpected nature of surprise. 

S. M. A.


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