Carmina non prosunt
Songs aren't any use
(Latin Elegiacs)

"Carmina non prosunt, non auri cantus acervis
addet; nec digitum progrediere tua
in vita dominae nova semper fingere temptans
carmina, non fama est celsa petenda tibi?"
Talia sic fatur sibi (recta mente) poeta
rursum at scribat, si praetereat domina!

"Songs are no use; they're not
going to add to your gleaming
pile of gold. Your life's not
going to advance a finger's breadth
by always trying to come up with new
songs for your girl. Shouldn't
you be seeking lofty glory?"
Such did the poet say to himself,
when his mind was thinking clear.
But if his girl walked by that day
He'd take to writing verse again.

Don't Let Your Eager Heart Conspire
(English Iambic Tetrameter/Latin Elegiac Verse Translation)

Let not your eager heart conspire
to wreak cool reason's o'er throw
(and yet her passion'd glance inspires
the reason of this tended grove

this green-lit bow'r, wherein my song
can shelter from all harden'd glance
for there it grows, on tunèd lyre
the trellis and frame of my desire).

Cordi ne liceat praestringere mentis acumen
at mihi sunt cordi, lumina pulchra tua!
Causas quae mihi dant versus scribendi, et amorem
altum cantandi; sola velut nemora
inter quae vagor alta; polire meos libet omnes
hic versus; silva in hac mihi crescat Amor.

Sapphics inspired by
Run this Town (First Draft)

Verticem incedam feriente solus
imbre sublimem, et colaphis resistam
ventorum nam mox aderit poetae
meta laborum

I shall walk proudly, my head
held high against the lashing
rain and the blows of the wind,
alone: yet soon will the poet's
toils return their due.