Kitap 2
Age hurries on, and death pursues too fast.
Or plough the seas, or cultivate the land,
740
Or wield the sword in thy advent'rous hand;
Or much in love thy nervous strength employ,
Embrace the fair, the grateful maid enjoy;
Pleasure and wealth reward thy pleasing pains,
The labour's great, but greater far the gains.
745
Add their experience in affairs of love,
For years and practice do alike improve,
Their arts repair the injuries of time,
And still preserve them in their charming prime;
In varied ways they act the pleasure o'er,
750
Not pictur'd postures can instruct you more.He speaks of obscene pictures representing nudities, and different postures, such as Carraccio's and Aretin's in latter days. For there was as bad in old times composed by Elephantis, from which Tiberius took the figures that were painted in his bed-chamber and closet.
They want no courtship to provoke delight,
But meet your warmth with eager appetite;
Give me enjoyment, when the willing dame
Glows with desires, and burns with equal flame.From this we may perceive our poet abhorred the gallantry too much practiced among the Romans then, and Italians now, as well as in the eastern countries. Indeed, we can find nothing like it in all his writings, which can hardly be said of any of his contemporary poets, or scarcely in one of their authors at all, before or after him, until the Romans embraced Christianity. He says it is true, he is only less touched with that beastly passion; and by that is to be understood he was not touched at all.
755
I love to hear the soft transporting joys,
The frequent sighs, the tender murm'ring voice;
To see her eyes with varied pleasures move,
