Remedia amoris

Dum modo causidicum, dum te modo rhetora fingis et non decernis, Laure, quid esse velis, Peleos et Priami transit et Nestoris aetas et fuerat serum iam tibi desinere. Incipe, tres uno perierunt rhetores anno, si quid habes animi, si quid in arte vales, si schola damnatur, fora litibus omnia fervent, ipse potest fieri Marsua causidicus. Heia age, rumpe moras: quo te sperabimus usque? Dum quid sis dubitas, iam potes esse nihil. While you are shaping yourself, Now into a pleader, now into a teacher of rhetoric, And don’t decide, Taurus, what you want to be,  The age of Peleus and of Priam and of Nestor has passed, And by now ’twere late for you even to be retiring. Begin — three rhetoricians have died in a single year —  If you have any spirit, if any proficiency in your calling. If your vote is against the schools, All the courts are alive with suits: Even Marsyas himself may turn into a pleader. Up, then! Put off delay; How long shall we be waiting for you? While you cannot resolve what you are, At last you may be nothing.

Martial, Epigrams, Book 2, LXIV
English translation by Walter C. A. Ker

An apparent just-married couple take rest and photographs under the shadow of a tree at Hyde Park in London, England, United Kingdom. Photo: Reuters/Peter Nicholls.