While I was pleasing to you, and not any man more able was giving his arms to your white neck, happier than the king of the Persians, I flourished .
'While I was not in love with another more, nor was Lydia second to Chloe, I, Lydia of many names, flourished more brightly than Roman Ilia.'
Now Thracian Chloe rules me, learned with repect to sweet poems and knowing of the lyre, on behalf of whom I will not fear to die, if the fates spare my surviving spirit.
'Calais, the son of Ornytus of Thurii, burns me with a mutual torch, on behalf of whome I will suffer to die twice, if the fates spare the surviving boy.'
What, if ancient Venus returns and forces us separated from a bronze yoke, if blond Chloe is banished, and the door lies open for rejected Lydia?
'Although that one is more handsome than a star, you are lighter than a cork and more hot tempered than the unruly Adriatic, with you I should love to live, with you I, willing, should die.'
Grammer Question: What is the function of "quid" in line 17? Is it just an exclamatory?
This poem is a conversation between Horace and Lydia, lovers. There is no paticular setting in this poem, it is just a conversation. The meter is second Asclepiadean and is written in the style of a dialogue. In this poem Horace is said to be lighter than a cork? What does that refer to?
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