Another poem to Glycinna (see also d2_MaiT_001 and d2_MaiT_026), which is directly modelled on Catullus, Carmina V (see this poem for textual allusions). In the original, Catullus insists on alternating three groups of a thousand kisses with three groups of a hundred until he and Lesbia lose count. Maitland instead suggests that Glycinna should withhold her kisses from him until the built-up longing causes him to become wholly enslaved to her; then, if she gives them he will repay her three hundred with three thousand, one after the other. Metre: phalaecian.
Ad Glycinnam (n.d.)
[p177]
Ad Glycinnam
1Ignitos oculos, faces perennes,
si me vis oculos tibi Glycinna
debere, atque animam, parumper abde:
ne dum basia centies trecenta
5porrectis mihi porrigis labellis,
exurant jecur impotente flamma.
Tum si pœniteat, jubesque reddi,
auctum fœnore mutuum rependam:
et qui basia centies trecenta
10cepi, basia millies trecenta
reddam continuo, diem neque unum
[p178]
proferri cupiam solutionis.
Tum dando, et repetendo quod dedisti,
14aeque te perhibebo liberalem.
[p177]
To Glycinna
For a moment, Glycinna, conceal your eyes aflame, perpetual torches, if you want me to owe my eyes and soul to you. While you do not offer me a hundred times three hundred kisses from your outstretched lips, they consume my liver with a powerless flame. Then, if it causes you regret and you command that they be given, I will repay them in turn, with added interest: and I who received a hundred times three hundred kisses will give back without interruption a thousand times three hundred kisses, nor would I desire that a single day [p178]of relaxation from payment be allowed. Then giving, and getting back again what I gave, I will grant you freedom in like measure.
