The Importance of Not Being Arcovazzi

Scribebamus epos; coepisti scribere: cessi, aemula ne starent carmina nostra tuis. Тranstulit ad tragicos se nоstrа Тhalia cothurnos: aрtasti longum tu quoque syrma tibi. Fila lyrae movi Calabris exculta Camenis: plectra rapis nobis, ambitiose, nova. Audemus saturas: Lucilius esse laboras. Ludo levis elegos: tu quoque ludis idem. Quid minus esse potest? Epigrammata fingere coepi: hinc etiam petitur iam mea palma tibi. Elige, quid nolis — quis enim pudor, omnia velle? — et si quid non vis, Tucca, relinque mihi. I was writing an epic; you began to write one: I left off, that my poems should not stand in rivalry with yours. My Thalia shifted to tragic buskins: You also fitted on yourself the long train of tragedy. I struck the strings of a lyre practised by the Calabrian Muses: You, ambitious man, snatch from me the new quill. I venture satire: you strain to be a Lucilius. I sport with light elegies: you, too, sport with the same thing. What lesser art can there be? I begin to model epigrams: In this quarter, too, my fame is already sought after by you. Pick out something you do not want — For what modesty is there in wanting everything? — And if there is anything you don’t want, Tucca, leave it to me. Scrivevo un’epopea: volesti comporla tu pure; smisi, perché i miei versi non emulassero i tuoi. Ai tragici coturni si volse la nostra Talia; l’abito del trageda indossasti tu pure. Le corde della lira toccai con i modi d’Orazio; e tu di man mi togli, ambizioso, il plettro. Tento allora la satira; ti sforzi di emulare Lucilio. Canto elegie leggere; e ne scrivi anche tu. Potevo far di meno? Mi misi a comporre epigrammi; ed anche qui la gloria m’è contesa da te. Scegli quel che non vuoi — vergogna è tutto volere —, e quel che non ti piace, lascialo, o Tucca, a me.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 12, XCIV
English translation by Walter C. A. Ker
Italian translation by Giuseppe Lipparini

Valletta, Malta: Migrants wave from the deck of the humanitarian ship Aquarius as it arrives at the port of Senglea, on the capital city’s Grand Harbour. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters.