Parthenope
Quondam Parthenope defixit carmine Ulixen.
Squalida me captam et sordida nuper habet.
To Napoli
Parthenope once lured Ulysses with her song.
Neglected and poor, she holds me newly captive.
Hospiti optimae (in Sapphic stanza)
Gratias multas tibi Laura demus
prandio pro tam sapido parato
nos velimus monte epularum humati
subter abesse.
To an excellent host
We owe great thanks to you, Lauren,
for lunch so tastily prepared;
buried in a mountain of food, we’d like
to eat our way out.
To Martha Washington
O mater patriae, facies tam stoica dura,
cives ex oculo lapidoso nos ita servat.
Translation
O mother of our country, your face, so sternly stoic
from its stony porthole thus protects us citizens.