What women say to lovers, you'll agree, One writes on running water or on air.
For the godly poet must be chaste himself, but there is no need for his verses to be so.
I hate and love. You ask, perhaps, how can that be? I know not, but I feel the agony.
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love. Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus
What a woman says to an eager lover, write it on running water, write it on air.
The vows that woman makes to her fond lover are only fit to be written on air or on the swiftly passing stream.