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Crimine quo merui, iuvenis placidissime divum,
quove errore miser, donis ut solus egerem,
Somne, tuis? tacet omne pecus volucresque feraeque
et simulant fessos curvata cacumina somnos,
nec trucibus fluviis idem sonus; occidit horror 5
aequoris, et terris maria adclinata quiescunt.
septima iam rediens Phoebe mihi respicit aegras
stare genas; totidem Oetaeae Paphiaeque revisunt
lampades et totiens nostros Tithonia questus
praeterit et gelido spargit miserata flagello. 10
unde ego sufficiam? non si mihi lumina mille,
quae sacer alterna tantum statione tenebat
Argus et haud umquam vigilabat corpore toto.
at nunc heu! si aliquis longa sub nocte puellae
bracchia nexa tenens ultro te, Somne, repellit, 15
inde veni; nec te totas infundere pennas
luminibus compello meis—hoc turba precatur
laetior—: extremo me tange cacumine virgae,
sufficit, aut leviter suspenso poplite transi.
Notes by Kathleen M. Coleman
Line 7 'Phoebe': The moon.
Lines 8–9 'Oetaeae Paphiaeque ... lampades': The Evening Star, Hesperus, believed to rise over Mt. Oeta in Thessaly, and The Morning Star, Venus, traditionally associated with the island of Paphos.
Line 9 'Tithonia': Aurora, named for her lover Tithonus.
Line 13 'Argus': A monster with a hundred eyes. When Jupiter committed adultery with Io, she was turned into a heifer and Juno set Argus to watch over her. Jupiter instructed Mercury to lull Argus to sleep by playing the flute, and then to cut off his head. Juno rescued his hundred eyes, and transferred them to the tail of her special bird, the peacock.
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