Saturday, September 29, 2018

Not in Time

Dum proavos atavosque refers et nomina magna,
dum tibi noster eques sordida conditio est,
dum te posse negas nisi lato, Gellia, clavo
nubere; nupsisti, Gellia, cistifero.

For rank, descent and title famed,
To gentry Gellia showed her hauteur;
She’d wed only a duke, she claimed —
But then she ran off with a porter.

Mentre d’avi e proavi eri tutta un rito,
e un cavalier mio pari era un pessimo partito,
e mentre, Gellia, sdegnavi di voler come marito
chiunque fosse meno d’un barone
hai sposato, Gellia, un garzone.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 5, XVII
English translation by John Patrick Sullivan
Italian translation by Holden Caulfield

South Korean makeup artist Dain Yoon (윤다인) painted onto her own face her remake of Henri Matisse’s picture Dance (I). Photo: Dain Yoon (@designdain).

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