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by Anonymous / Unidentified Author
Translation © by Grant Hicks
Pervigilium Veneris
Language: Latin
Our translations: ENG
cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet ! ver novum, ver iam canorum, vere natus orbis est ; vere concordant amores, vere nubunt alites, et nemus comam resolvit de maritis imbribus. cras amorum copulatrix inter umbras arborum implicat casas virentis de flagello myrteo, cras Dione iura dicit fulta sublimi throno. cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet ! tunc cruore de superno spumeo pontus globo caerulas inter catervas, inter et bipedes equos, fecit undantem Dionen de marinis fluctibus. cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet ! ipsa gemmis purpurantem pingit annum floridis ; ipsa surgentes papillas de Favoni spiritu urget in nodos tepentes ; ipsa roris lucidi, noctis aura quem relinquit, spargit umentis aquas. emicant lacrimae trementes de caduco pondere : gutta praeceps orbe parvo sustinet casus suos. en, pudorem florulentae prodiderunt purpurae ! umor ille, quem serenis astra rorant noctibus, mane virgineas papillas solvit umenti peplo. ipsa iussit mane ut udae virgines nubant rosae : facta Cypridis de cruore deque Amoris osculis deque gemmis deque flammis deque solis purpuris cras ruborem, qui latebat veste tectus ignea, unico marita nodo non pudebit solvere. cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet ! ipsa nymphas diva luco iussit ire myrteo. it Puer comes puellis ; nec tamen credi potest esse Amorem feriatum, si sagittas vexerit : "ite, nymphae, posuit arma, feriatus est Amor ! iussus est inermis ire, nudus ire iussus est, neu quid arcu, neu sagitta, neu quid igne laederet. sed tamen, nymphae, cavete, quod Cupido pulcher est : totus est in armis idem, quando nudus est Amor." cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet ! "compari Venus pudore mittit ad te virgines : una res est quam rogamus : cede, virgo Delia, ut nemus sit incruentum de ferinis stragibus, et rigentibus virentes ducat umbras floribus. ipsa vellet te rogare, si pudicam flecteret ; ipsa vellet ut venires, si deceret virginem. iam tribus choros videres feriatis noctibus congreges inter catervas ire per saltus tuos, floreas inter coronas, myrteas inter casas. nec Ceres nec Bacchus absunt, nec poetarum deus. detinenda tota nox est, pervigilanda canticis : regnet in silvis Dione ! tu recede, Delia !" cras amet qui numquam amavit quique amavit cras amet ! iussit Hyblaeis tribunal stare diva floribus ; praeses ipsa iura dicet, adsidebunt Gratiae. Hybla, totos funde flores, quidquid annus adtulit ; Hybla, florum sume vestem, quantus Aetnae campus est. ruris hic erunt puellae vel puellae montium, quaeque silvas, quaeque lucus, quaeque fontes incolunt : iussit omnes adsidere Pueri mater alitis, iussit, et nudo, puellas nil Amori credere. cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet ! cras erit quo primus Aether copulavit nuptias, ut pater totum crearet vernis annum nubibus : in sinum maritus imber fluxit almae coniugis, unde fetus mixtus omnes aleret magno corpore. ipsa venas atque mentem permeanti spiritu intus occultis gubernat procreatrix viribus ; perque caelum perque terras perque pontum subditum pervium sui tenorem seminali tramite imbuit iussitque mundum nosse nascendi vias. cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet ! ipsa Troianos nepotes in Latinos transtulit ; ipsa Laurentem puellam coniugem nato dedit, moxque Marti de sacello dat pudicam virginem ; Romuleas ipsa fecit cum Sabinis nuptias, unde Ramnes et Quirites, proque prole posterum Romuli, patrem crearet et nepotem Caesarem. cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet ! rura fecundat voluptas, rura Venerem sentiunt, ipse Amor, puer Dionae, rure natus dicitur. hunc, ager cum parturiret, ipsa suscepit sinu, ipsa florum delicatis educavit osculis. cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet ! ecce, iam subter genestas explicant tauri latus, quisque tutus, quo tenetur, coniugali foedere ! subter umbras cum maritis, ecce, balantum greges ! et canoras non tacere diva iussit alites : iam loquaces ore rauco stagna cygni perstrepunt ; adsonat Terei puella subter umbram populi, ut putes motus amoris ore dici musico, et neges queri sororem de marito barbaro. illa cantat, nos tacemus. quando ver venit meum ? quando fiam uti chelidon, ut tacere desinam ? perdidi Musam tacendo, nec me Phoebus respicit : sic Amyclas, cum tacerent, perdidit silentium. cras amet qui numquam amavit, quique amavit cras amet !
View text with all available footnotes
Researcher for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
Confirmed with Catullus, Tibullus, Pervigilium Veneris, Loeb Classical Library 6, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2000, Pages 350-358.
Text Authorship:
- by Anonymous / Unidentified Author, "Pervigilium Veneris" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Go to the general view
Researcher for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-25
Line count: 93
Word count: 673
The Vigil of Venus
NOTE: the footnotes have been removed from this text; return to general view
Language: English after the Latin
Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! Fresh Spring, already melodious Spring: the world is born in Spring; loves harmonize in Spring, birds wed in Spring, and the forest lets down its hair beneath fertilizing showers. Tomorrow the uniter of loves, among the shadows of the trees, weaves verdant huts of myrtle branches, tomorrow Dione declares the law, seated on her lofty throne. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! On such a day the sea from a foaming sphere of blood from above among throngs of blue, among two-legged horses, created Dione, surging from the billows of the sea. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! She herself paints the year purple with flowery jewels; the buds that spring up under the breath of the west wind she herself urges into fruitful swellings; of the shining dew, the exhalation that night leaves behind, she scatters the damp waters. The sparkling tears tremble with their pendent burden: a precarious droplet checks its fall in a tiny orb. Behold, the purple of the flowers has revealed their modesty! That liquid that falls as dew from the stars on clear nights, in the morning opens the virginal buds with a watery cloak. In the morning she herself bade the roses, dewy virgins, to marry: She who was made from Cypriot blood and from Love's kisses and from gems and from flames and from purple sunlight tomorrow her redness, which lurked beneath a fiery garment, wedded with a single bond, will not be ashamed to set free. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! The goddess herself has bidden the nymphs to go to the myrtle grove: her Son accompanies the maidens; nor yet can it be believed that Love is on holiday, if he carries arrows: "Go, nymphs, he has put down his weapons, Love is on holiday! He is bidden to go unarmed, he is bidden to go naked, lest he wound anyone with bow or arrow or fire. But still be on your guard, nymphs, for Cupid is comely: And Love is fully armed, even when naked." Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! "Venus sends virgins to you with suitable modesty: there is one thing we ask: withdraw, Delian virgin, so that the wood may be unstained by the slaughter of wild beasts, and may cast verdant shadows upon flowers standing upright. She would like to invite you, if she might prevail on your modesty; she would like you to come, if it befits a virgin. Now for three festal nights you would see choruses gathered among throngs to go through your woodlands, among garlands of flowers, among huts of myrtle. Neither Ceres nor Bacchus is absent, nor the god of poets. The whole night is to be prolonged and kept awake with singing: May Dione reign in the forests! Withdraw, O Delia!" Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! The goddess has ordered her tribunal to be set up among the flowers of Hybla; presiding, she will declare the law, and the Graces will seat themselves by her side. Hybla, scatter all your flowers, whatever the year has brought; Hybla, take up your garment of flowers, across the whole plain of Etna. Here were the maidens of the country or of the mountains, Some inhabiting forests, some groves, some springs: the winged Youth's mother has bidden them all to attend, he has bidden the maidens to put no trust in Love, even when he is naked. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! Tomorrow is the day when primal Aether will have been joined in marriage, that as a father he might create the whole year from the vernal mists: into the nurturing spouse's lap flows the fertilizing rain, whence mingled with the great body he might nourish all the fruits. The procreator herself with her pervading breath inwardly governs blood and mind with hidden powers; and through sky and through earth and through sea beneath she has strewn her pervasive course with a path of seeds and bidden the world to know the ways of propagation. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! She herself transformed the progeny of Troy into Latins; she herself gave her son the Laurentine maiden as a bride, and afterwards gives to Mars a chaste virgin from the shrine; she herself arranged the Romans' marriage to the Sabine women, whence she would create the Ramnes and the Quirites, and for the sake of the race descended from Romulus, the Caesars, father and nephew. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! Delight makes the country fertile, the country feels Venus's influence, They say Love himself, Dione's son, was born in the country. When the field gave birth, she took him to her bosom. She reared him on the delicate kisses of flowers. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow! Behold, now the bulls stretch their flanks beneath the broom, each secure in the marital compact that binds him! In the shadows with their spouses, behold the flocks of sheep! And the goddess bids the songbirds not to be silent: now the raucous voices of the chattering swans echo in their pools; the bride of Tereus responds from the shade of a poplar, so that you might think it the loving utterance of a musical mouth, and not the complaint of a sister against a barbarous husband. She sings, we remain silent. When does my Spring come? When may I become like the swallow, and break my silence? I have lost my Muse by my silence, nor does Phoebus have regard for me: Thus did silence ruin Amyclae when it failed to speak. Tomorrow let him love who has never loved, and who has loved, let him love tomorrow!
View text with all available footnotes
Note for stanza 2, line 6: Dione was the mother of the goddess Aphrodite, the Greek equivalent of Venus, but in Roman poetry her name was often used to refer to Venus/Aphrodite herself.
Note for stanza 4: In Lloyd's setting no explicit subject is given for the verb fecit ("created") in line 3. There are versions of this poem with an extra line at the beginning of this stanza that provides such a subject, in the form of the phrase primus Aether, and it may be that Lloyd's text is based on some such version. Although Lloyd omitted this line from his setting, the translator has borrowed from it to provide "created" with a subject.
Note for stanza 6, line 11: both "Cypriot" and Lloyd's "Paphian" refer to Venus, who was said to have been born in the city of Paphos on the island of Cyprus.
Note for stanza 10, line 2, "Delian virgin": Diana, goddess of the hunt, who was said to have been born on the island of Delos.
Note for stanza 10, line 10, "the god of poets": Apollo.
Note for stanza 12, line 1, "Hybla": the name of several Sicilian villages, here most probably Hybla Gereatis, present-day Paterno, on the south slope of mount Etna.
Notes for stanza 16, line 2: "her son" refers to Aeneas, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (i.e., Venus). "The Laurentine maiden" is Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus of Latium, whose capital was the coastal city of Laurentum.
Note for stanza 16, line 5, "Ramnes and Quirites": the Ramnes were one of the three original Roman tribes, representing the descendants of Romulus. Quirites was not itself a tribal name, but may stand in here for the tribe of the Tities, representing the descendants of the Sabines, by virtue of the Roman belief that the word "Quirites" was derived from the Sabine town of Cures. The poet omits mention of the third tribe, the Luceres (probably representing the Etruscans).
Note for stanza 16, line 6, "father and nephew": Caesar Augustus was Julius Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son.
Note for stanza 20, line 6, "the bride of Tereus": Procne, wife of a legendary Thracian king. Tereus raped her sister Philomela, and then cut out Philomela's tongue to prevent her from revealing his crime. The gods subsequently transformed all three into birds, with Procne becoming a swallow (cf. line 8).
Note for stanza 20, line 11, "Phoebus": literally "Bright", an epithet of Apollo, the god of poetry and song.
Note for stanza 20, line 12, "Amyclae": a city in the Peloponnesus that was conquered by Sparta in the eighth century BC. Legend had it that unfounded reports of approaching troops had become so regular that the city passed a law banning mention of the topic, so that no alarm was raised when an actual attack materialized.
Note for stanza 2, line 6: Dione was the mother of the goddess Aphrodite, the Greek equivalent of Venus, but in Roman poetry her name was often used to refer to Venus/Aphrodite herself.
Note for stanza 4: In Lloyd's setting no explicit subject is given for the verb fecit ("created") in line 3. There are versions of this poem with an extra line at the beginning of this stanza that provides such a subject, in the form of the phrase primus Aether, and it may be that Lloyd's text is based on some such version. Although Lloyd omitted this line from his setting, the translator has borrowed from it to provide "created" with a subject.
Note for stanza 6, line 11: both "Cypriot" and Lloyd's "Paphian" refer to Venus, who was said to have been born in the city of Paphos on the island of Cyprus.
Note for stanza 10, line 2, "Delian virgin": Diana, goddess of the hunt, who was said to have been born on the island of Delos.
Note for stanza 10, line 10, "the god of poets": Apollo.
Note for stanza 12, line 1, "Hybla": the name of several Sicilian villages, here most probably Hybla Gereatis, present-day Paterno, on the south slope of mount Etna.
Notes for stanza 16, line 2: "her son" refers to Aeneas, the son of the Trojan prince Anchises and the goddess Aphrodite (i.e., Venus). "The Laurentine maiden" is Lavinia, the daughter of King Latinus of Latium, whose capital was the coastal city of Laurentum.
Note for stanza 16, line 5, "Ramnes and Quirites": the Ramnes were one of the three original Roman tribes, representing the descendants of Romulus. Quirites was not itself a tribal name, but may stand in here for the tribe of the Tities, representing the descendants of the Sabines, by virtue of the Roman belief that the word "Quirites" was derived from the Sabine town of Cures. The poet omits mention of the third tribe, the Luceres (probably representing the Etruscans).
Note for stanza 16, line 6, "father and nephew": Caesar Augustus was Julius Caesar's great-nephew and adopted son.
Note for stanza 20, line 6, "the bride of Tereus": Procne, wife of a legendary Thracian king. Tereus raped her sister Philomela, and then cut out Philomela's tongue to prevent her from revealing his crime. The gods subsequently transformed all three into birds, with Procne becoming a swallow (cf. line 8).
Note for stanza 20, line 11, "Phoebus": literally "Bright", an epithet of Apollo, the god of poetry and song.
Note for stanza 20, line 12, "Amyclae": a city in the Peloponnesus that was conquered by Sparta in the eighth century BC. Legend had it that unfounded reports of approaching troops had become so regular that the city passed a law banning mention of the topic, so that no alarm was raised when an actual attack materialized.
Text Authorship:
- Translation from Latin to English copyright © 2026 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 , "Pervigilium Veneris"
Go to the general view
This text was added to the website: 2026-04-25
Line count: 93
Word count: 1062