METAMORPHOSES BOOK III long road, uo mountain ranges, no city xalls with close-shut gates; by a thin barrier of water we are kept apart. He himself is eager to be embraced. For, often as I stretch my lips towards the lucent wave, so often with upturned face he strives to lift his lips to mine. You would think he could be touched-so small a thing it is that separates our loving hearts. Whoever you are, come forth hither! Why, O peerless youth, do you elude me? or whither do you go when I strive to reach you? Surely my form and age are not such that you should shun them, and me too the nymphs have loved. Some ground for hope you offer with your friendly looks, and when I have stretched out my arms to you, you stretch yours too. When I have smiled, you smile back; and I have often seen tears, when I weep, on your cheeks Iy becks you answer with your nod; and, as I sus- pect from the movement of your sweet lips, you answer my words as well, but words which do not reach my ears.-Oh, I am he! I have felt it, I know now my own image. L burn with love of my own self: I both kindle the flames and suffer them. What shall I do? Shall I be wooed or woo? Why woo at all? What I desire, I have; the very abundance of my riches beggars me. Oh, that I might be parted from my own body! and, strange prayer for a love I would that what I love were absent from me! And now grief is sapping my strength ; but a brief space of life remains to me and I am cut off in my life's prime. Death is nothing to me, for in death I shall eave my troubles; I would he that is loved might live longer; but as it is, we two shall die together in one breath." He spoke and, half distraught, turned again to the same image. His tears ruffled the water, and dimly 157
