Now love has finally come,
it would be the better part of valour
to keep it obscure, veiling the heart
in pudency, confiding in no-one.
Cythera has conspired with the Muses
to endow our ardent embrace;
Venus has honoured all her promises.
Grant those bereft of such joys
the vicarious pleasure of telling them,
but I forbear to entrust them
to wax and clay, lest others learn
my tidings before my beloved.
How sweet it is to err, how dull to observe
propriety. Better appear to the world
as a woman of substance, who has been seen
with another of high esteem.
Tandem venit amor, qualem texisse pudori
quam nudasse alicui sit mihi fama magis.
Exorata meis illum Cytherea Camenis
attulit in nostrum depositque sinum.
Exsolvit promissa Venus: mea gaudia narret,
dicetur si quis non habuisse sua.
Non ego signatis quicquam mandare tabellis,
ne legat id nemo quam meus ante, velim.
Sed peccasse iuvat, vultus componere famae
taedet: cum digno digna fuisse ferar.
(freely translated from the Latin)
I gratefully acknowledge Vladislav Nekliaev's
assistance in deciphering the literal meanings
of Sulpicia's poems.