This poem is taken from PN Review 35, Volume 10 Number 3, January - February 1984.

From Sextus Propertius

Peter Jay

O ME FELICEM! O NOX MIHI CANDIDA!

My happiness, night radiant for me,
Bed made blissful by all our delightings,
How many thoughts exchanged in the lamplight
How many tussles when the light was extinguished . . .
Grappling with me bare-breasted, then making
Feints with her nightie to hold me off . . .
And later, my eyelids drooping with sleep
Unsealed by her tongue, and she said
  'Gone off me, darling, too tired?'
Intricate interplay of arms and embraces,
My kisses lingering so long on your lips. . .

Blind motion kills the pleasure. Eyes, let me tell you,
Eyes are the pilots in love. You know the stories:
Paris, prince of Troy, was undone with love for that Spartan
Naked as she emerged from the bed of Menelaus;
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