If you felt the fires of love, mule-driver

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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Amoris ignes si sentires mulio

Language: Latin

Our translations: ENG

Amoris ignes si [sentires]¹ mulio,
magi properares, ut [uideris]² Venerem.
diligo iuuenem uenustum. rogo, punge, iamus.
bibisti: [iamus.]³ prende lora et excute,
Pompeios defer, ubi dulcis est amor.
meus es

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• J. Novák

J. Novák sets lines 1-2, 4-5

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes

Confirmed with Franz Bücheler, Carmina latina epigraphica, Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, Pages 22-23.

Note: an inscription from Pompeii.
¹ Novák: "sentires,"
² Novák: "videres"
³ Novák: "eamus,"

Text Authorship:

by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, no title [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Jan Novák (1921 - 1984), "Amoris ignes", lines 1-2,4-5, from Cantica latina, no. 16 [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2025, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 6
Word count: 33

If you felt the fires of love,...

Language: English after the Latin

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If you felt the fires of love, mule-driver,
You'd make greater haste, so as to see Venus.
I love a handsome young man. I ask you, use your spur, let's go.
You've had your drink: let's go. Take the reins and give them a shake,
Bear me away to Pompeii, where love is sweet.
You are my

Available sung text translations: ← What is this?

• J. Novák

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"Amoris ignes" = "The Fires of Love"

Translator's note: This text was found inscribed on a wall in Pompeii, and the status of the final line (meus es in Latin) is unclear. First, there is some disagreement as to whether the last word is es ("you are") or est ("he is"). Either way, the scholarly consensus seems to be that the inscription is incomplete and originally continued with a noun to which meus ("my") would have applied. This translation makes that assumption. Otherwise the sentence might be complete, meaning "You are [or, he is] mine." Some older scholars (19th and early 20th centuries) appear not to have read es[t] at all, and applied meus to the preceding line's amor, yielding something like "... where my love is sweet."

Text Authorship:

Translation from Latin to English copyright © 2025 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Latin by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist , no title
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2025-09-30
Line count: 6
Word count: 57