Stalemate

Cum mittis turdumve mihi quadramve placentae, sive femur lepuris, sive quid his simile est, buccellas misisse tuas te, Pontia, dicis. Has ego non mittam, Pontia, sed nec edam. When you send me a thrush or a slice of cake Or a hare’s thigh, or anything resembling these, You say you have sent me your little mouthfuls, Pontia. I shall not send them elsewhere, Pontia, but I shan’t eat them either. Quando mi mandi in regalo un tordo o una fetta di torta, o un coscetto di lepre o altre leccornìe, dici d’avermi mandato, o Ponzia, i tuoi bocconcini. Io non li mando ad altri, Ponzia, e neppure li mangio.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 6, LXXV
English translation by David Roy Shackleton Bailey
Italian translation by Giuseppe Lipparini

Paul Klee, Gift (Poison), 1932. Credit: ArtStack.