Ovid's Metamorphoses

(Charles Martin tr.)

1.916--919 (p.42)

Nor can I end this suffering by death:
it is a hamful thing to be a god,
for the gates of death are firmly closed against me,
and our sorrows must go on forever.

2.170--172 (p.96)

But `fortunate'? A judgement best reserved
for a man's last day: call no one blest, until
he dies and the last rites are said for him.

6.4-7 (p.189)

To praise is insufficient, she reflected: we will be praised---and we will not permit
those who belittle our divinity
to go unpunished!

tum secum: 'laudare parum est, laudemur et ipsae
numina nec sperni sine poena nostra sinamus.'

於是她自言自語道: 僅僅稱讚別人是不夠的, 我自己也應受人稱讚才是, 我不能讓人隨便輕視我而不給他們懲罰. (楊周翰)

她這麼思量: 開口讚美不如受人讚美, 萬萬不能縱容凡人在我們面前囂張. (呂健忠)


7.800-804

Ungovernable plague! The doctors die,
their arts a harm to their practitioners,
and those who are the closest to the sick,
who serve most faithfully, are first to fall!

None can offer help, / ease the disease; the plague is pitiless, / assailing even those who try to heal--- / the doctors’ craft rebounds against their selves. / For he who stays more close to the diseased / and cares for them most faithfully will meet / his fate more speedily. (Mandelbaum, in [523--54])