Three hundred guests, not one of whom I wish to meet,
and yet you wonder why I don’t enjoy your treat;
your boring guests are very hard to mitigate,
so I would rather stay at home than litigate.
Inspired byepigram xxxv in Book XI of Martial’s Epigrams:
Ignotos mihi cum voces trecentos,
quare non veniam vocatus ad te
miraris quererisque litigasque.
Solus ceno, Fabulle, non libenter,
James Michie translates:
Three hundred guests, not one of whomI know-
And you as host wonder that I won’t go.
Don’t quarrel with me, I’m not being rude:
I can’t enjoy sociable solitude.
2/19/08
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem