Amoris ignes si sentires, mulio,
magi properares, ut videres Venerem.
 ... 
bibisti: eamus, prende lora et excute,
Pompeios defer, ubi dulcis est amor.
 ... 

If you felt the fires of love, mule-driver,
You'd make greater haste, so as to see Venus.
 ... 
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.
 ... 

Note: the text above is taken from lines 1-2,4-5 of the original text.

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