Gaius Cornelius Gallus(70-26 BCE)

1

You should not have been so eager

to wash away the shame of ambition

with death's bitter remedy,

as at one pentameter and nine lines 'of inferior quality'

stands your lyric legacy

after time more merciless than Octavian

has wrought its punishment

and left these as your poetic monument.

2

You should have pushed death's release away,

put words down and sought Octavian's forgiveness

as poet through flattery and praise,

and your political ambition

would have been forgiven if not forgotten,

your ambition to be remembered as a statesman

buried, like those nine lines in the sands of Nubia.

14.10.2015