Chap. VI.
TRANSLATION.
95
The hunted hind lies close in yonder brake.
Loud Cupid laugh'd, to see the God's mistake:
And laughing cried, learn better, great Divine,
To know thy kindred, and to honour mine.
Rightly advis'd, far hence thy sister seek,
Or on Meander's banks, or Latmus' peak.
But in this nymph, my friend, my sister know;
She draws my arrows, and he bends my bow.
Fair Thames she haunts, and every neighbouring grove,
Sacred to soft recess, and gentle Love.
Go with thy Cynthia, hurl the pointed spear
At the rough boar, or chace the flying deer:
I, and my Chloe, take a nobler aim;
At human hearts we fling, nor ever miss the game.
Loud Cupid laugh'd, to see the God's mistake:
And laughing cried, learn better, great Divine,
To know thy kindred, and to honour mine.
Rightly advis'd, far hence thy sister seek,
Or on Meander's banks, or Latmus' peak.
But in this nymph, my friend, my sister know;
She draws my arrows, and he bends my bow.
Fair Thames she haunts, and every neighbouring grove,
Sacred to soft recess, and gentle Love.
Go with thy Cynthia, hurl the pointed spear
At the rough boar, or chace the flying deer:
I, and my Chloe, take a nobler aim;
At human hearts we fling, nor ever miss the game.
Forte Chloe, pulchros nodo collecta capillos
Post collum, pharetrâque latus succincta decorâ,
Venatrix ad sylvam ibat; cervumque secuta
Elapsum visu, deserta per avia tendit
Incerta. Errantem nympham conspexit Apollo,
Et, converte tuos, dixit, mea Cynthia, cursus;
En ibi (monstravitque manu) tibi cervus anhelat
Occultus dumo, latebrisque moratur in illis.
Post collum, pharetrâque latus succincta decorâ,
Venatrix ad sylvam ibat; cervumque secuta
Elapsum visu, deserta per avia tendit
Incerta. Errantem nympham conspexit Apollo,
Et, converte tuos, dixit, mea Cynthia, cursus;
En ibi (monstravitque manu) tibi cervus anhelat
Occultus dumo, latebrisque moratur in illis.
