Christmas Greetings

SUSAN AND NORMAN PEARSON

MARTIAL XII:xxxii

DE HORTIS MARCELLAE VXORIS

Hoc nemus, hi fontes, haec textilis umbra supini
palmitis, hoc riguae ductile flumen aquae,
prataque nec bifero cessura rosaria Paesto,
quodque viret Iani mense nec alget holus,
quaeque natat clusis anguilla domestica lymphis,
quaeque gerit similes candida turris aves,
munera sunt dominae; post septem lustra reverso
has Marcella domos parvaque regna dedit.
Si mihi Nausicaä patrios concederet hortos,
Alcinoö possem dicere 'Malo meos.'

DUDLEY FITTS

MARCELLA'S GARDENS

The grove with its quick fountains,
flickering
shade of drowsing vine,
the demure
brooklet of curtseying water,
deft cessions of meadow,
roses redder than Paestum and all its roses,
vegetables
snug asleep in January earth:
our own
eels in the pond,
the white colonnade
with its pairs of muttering white doves:
All these are Marcella's, my wife's,
and mine: since now,
after my long exile, she cedes me
rule in this tiny empire of her love.

If Nausikaä promised me her father's gardens,
I'd say to Alkinoös 'I prefer my own.'

Copyright, 1957, by Dudley Fitts.