Erotica Romana

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0008" id="link2H_4_0008"></SPAN></p> <h2> VIII </h2> <p>"Can you be cruel enough to sadden me thus with reproaches?<br/> <br/> Germans speak, I suppose, bitterly when they're in love.<br/> <br/> Bear it I must when the gossips bring forth accusations: I'm guilty&mdash;<br/> <br/> Or am I not? But, alas, all of my guilt was with you.<br/> <br/> Clothes that you've given bear witness for envious neighbors<br/> <br/> That the poor widow no more grieves for her husband alone.<br/> <br/> Did you not thoughtlessly visit me in the disguise of a cleric,<br/> <br/> Muffled all up in a cloak, hair all rounded behind?<br/> <br/> Who was it chose that gray monk if not you? Well then a prelate<br/> <br/> Now is my lover&mdash;Ah, who is my prelate but you?<br/> <br/> Never, incredible as it may sound in this clerical city,<br/> <br/> Has any cleric brought me&mdash;swear it I will&mdash;to his bed.<br/> <br/> I was sufficiently poor, sad to say. I was young. The seducers<br/> <br/> Noted it well. Falconier ogled me often enough.<br/> <br/> One of the pimps for Albani with billets doux very impressive<br/> <br/> Called me to Ostia once. Quattro Fontani next time.<br/> <br/> Who was it did not appear there? Why, who but the very same girl who<br/> <br/> Hated with all of her heart stockings both violet and red.<br/> <br/> For: 'In the end you poor girls are the ones who are sure to be cheated.'<br/> <br/> So said my father although&mdash;Mother was not much impressed.<br/> <br/> Father was right. Here I stand in the end being cheated and scolded.<br/> <br/> You don't believe your own words. They're your excuse to escape.<br/> <br/> Go, then. Unworthy of women are men. We, who carry your children<br/> <br/> Next to our hearts, in these hearts loyalty we bear you, too.<br/> <br/> As for you men, when you've poured out your potency in our embraces<br/> <br/> And your desires dissipate, love with them passes away."<br/> <br/> These things expressed, and taking her child from its chair, my beloved<br/> <br/> Presses it close to her heart, kisses it, tears in her eyes.<br/> <br/> I'm now so very ashamed of myself for having permitted<br/> <br/> Gossip of neighbors to spoil picture so eloquent.<br/> <br/> For a short moment a fire may burn darkly while smoke swirls about it.<br/> <br/> Water dashed on the coals suddenly smothers their glow.<br/> <br/> Rapidly then renewed heat overcomes those lowering vapors,<br/> <br/> Sends up a flame that anew bright and more powerful gleams.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />