Thursday, May 07, 2015

 

The Wish to Give Up Part of One's Life in Exchange for Another's

Tibullus 1.6.63 (tr. J.P. Postgate):
Did but heaven allow, to thy stock of years would I add my own.

                                        proprios ego tecum,
    sit modo fas, annos contribuisse velim.
Propertius 4.11.95 (tr. G.P. Goold):
May the time that was taken from me be added to your years.

quod mihi detractumst, vestros accedat ad annos.
Carmina Latina Epigraphica 995.13-16 (tr. Edward Courtney):
If cruel destiny permitted exchange of life and survival could be purchased by another's death, I should gladly have exchanged for you, dear Homonoea, whatever time is due to my life.

si pensare animas sinerent crudelia fata
    et posset redimi morte aliena salus,
quantulacumque meae debentur tempora vitae,
    pensassem pro te, cara Homonoea, libens.
Id., lines 25-26:
May my premature death prolong for you as you live into the future that part of the prime of life which it has taken from me.

quodque mihi eripuit mors immatura iuventae,
    id tibi victuro proroget ulterius.
Acclamation quoted by Tertullian, Apology 35.7 (tr. T.R. Glover):
Jupiter take our years to add to thine.

de nostris annis augeat tibi Iuppiter annos.
More parallels in Edward Courtney, ed., The Fragmentary Latin Poets (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993; rpt. 2003), p. 482.



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