Metamorphoses IV, lines 63–73
utque dedit notae lacrimas, dedit oscula vesti,
‘accipe nunc’ inquit ‘nostri quoque sanguinis haustus!’
quoque erat accinctus, demisit in ilia ferrum,
nec mora, ferventi moriens e vulnere traxit.
ut iacuit resupinus humo, cruor emicat alte,
non aliter quam cum vitiato fistula plumbo
scinditur et tenui stridente foramina longas
eiaculatur aquas atque ictibus aera rumpit.
arborei fetus adspergine caedis in atram
vertuntur faciem, madefactaque sanguine radix
purpureo tinguit pendentia more colore.
Ovid
|
‘Pyramus and Thisbe’ from Metamorphoses XII
And as he shed tears and kisses over her familiar veil,
He said, ‘ Now drink my blood as well as hers!’
And he sunk the sword he wore into his stomach,
Wrenching it out immediately from his seething wound.
As he lay on the ground prostrate, the blood gushed high,
Just as a damaged lead pipe splinters and spews
Towering streams through a minute hissing hole
And rips the air with a surge of water.
The berries of the tree are stained inky-black
From the surging gore and the blood-soaked root tinged
The dangling mulberries with a purple blood-colour.
Translated
from the Latin by Christina Macsween |
