{"id":141402,"date":"2015-08-12T21:04:35","date_gmt":"2015-08-12T21:04:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/08\/12\/oh-if-only-it-were-permitted-for-me-to-hold-your\/"},"modified":"2015-08-12T21:04:35","modified_gmt":"2015-08-12T21:04:35","slug":"oh-if-only-it-were-permitted-for-me-to-hold-your","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.merindab.com\/private\/2015\/08\/12\/oh-if-only-it-were-permitted-for-me-to-hold-your\/","title":{"rendered":""},"content":{"rendered":"

Oh, if only it were permitted for me to hold\u00a0your clasped little arms
\nagainst my neck and to bring kisses to your tender little lips.
\nNow, go entrust your desires to the winds, girl.
\nBelieve me, men\u2019s nature is fickle.
\nOften I lay awake in the middle of the night, love-crushed,
\nthinking these thoughts to myself: many are the men who Fortune raised up high
\nand these same men, suddenly cast down, she now presses hard.
\n Thus just as Venus suddenly joined the bodies of lovers
\nthe daylight has divided them again, and if \u2026
\n–
\n–
\n–
\nO utinam liceat collo complexa tenere
\nbraciola et teneris oscula ferre labellis
\ni nunc, ventis tua gaudia, pupula, crede.
\nCrede mihi, levis est natura virorum.
\nSaepe ego cu(m) media vigilare(m) perdita nocte,
\nhaec mecum medita(n)s: multos fortuna quos supstulit alte
\nnos modo proiectos subito praecipitesque premit.
\nSic Venus ut subito coiunxit corpora amantum
\ndividit lux et se \u2026<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n

corpus inscriptionem latinarum iv. 5296<\/p>\n

archaeologists found this poem inscribed into a wall in the entranceway to a house in pompeii (ix. 9 f., now blocked to the public due to extensive damage to the block). \u00a0pompeii has an extensive and well preserved tradition of graffiti that serves as an excellent source for how poetry, literature, and song functioned in the everyday roman\u2019s life. \u00a0for this reason alone CIL iv. 5296 is worth considering. \u00a0general consensus among classicists is that this poem is a mish-mash of misquotations from\u00a0\u201chigh literature\u201d like propertius, contemporary folk songs, and possibly some original composition. \u00a0however, what i find much more exciting about this poem is what it might reveal about the lives of women in rome, especially women who loved other women.<\/b><\/p>\n

my translation doesn\u2019t explicitly carry this through, but the genders of various adjectives in the original latin reveal that both the speaker of this poem and the love interest to whom the poem is addressed are women<\/b>. \u00a0feminine grammar and vocabulary is used to describe both of them (perdita <\/i>for the speaker, pupula <\/i>for the love interest). \u00a0in all likelihood this could be the only extant piece of love poetry in the roman world written by a woman for a woman<\/b>! \u00a0it\u2019s amazing!! \u00a0of course, scholars have tried to weasel around the possibility of a\u00a0\u201clesbian\u201d reading of the poem. \u00a0some think it\u2019s a piece of friendly advice from one gal pal to another, some think it\u2019s a man speaking to a woman. \u00a0some even propose that the speaker is an artificial character created by a male author\/poet\/graffitist.<\/p>\n

while it\u2019s certainly not unprecedented in roman poetry for men to write from the perspective of women, they usually do so in the context of a larger narrative. \u00a0at least, they signal the fact that they the author are separate from the female persona they assume for the purpose of writing. \u00a0besides, assuming that the author is a woman opens some really interesting avenues for interpretation of the piece.<\/p>\n

the use of diminutive language (braciola, labellis, pupula<\/i>;\u00a0\u201clittle arms,\u201d\u00a0\u201clittle lips,\u201d\u00a0\u201clittle girl\u201d) is specifically concentrated into the first portion of the poem. \u00a0this leads one to believe that such vocabulary is not the poet\u2019s natural tendency, but an intentional move. \u00a0women are often depicted in roman literature as typically using these blanditiae <\/i>(essentially flattering baby talk distinguished by diminutives) in romantic contexts. \u00a0the artificially constructed language of the opening leads me to believe that a female author <\/b>might be\u00a0taking a jab at this assumption, parodying male assumptions of women\u2019s speech<\/b> (and thus writing) before moving on to the rest of her poem.<\/p>\n

another roman cliche about women and love is that they are flighty. \u00a0in fact, the imagery of winds blowing away promises or desires is commonly evoked by male love poets when they lament the unfaithfulness of their women. \u00a0the author of this poem takes up that imagery and gives it a spin, asserting that it is men <\/i>(virorum<\/i>)\u00a0who cannot be trusted. \u00a0the fickleness of men is then immediately contrasted with the sleepless nights of the ever-faithful female <\/i>speaker, who, crushed by love, wishes that she could have the opportunity to give the unconditional love a man could not. \u00a0<\/b>this instability is further underscored when the author invokes the goddess fortune, who flings her (masculinely gendered) victims from the heights of success to the depths of despair.<\/p>\n

kristina milnor argues in graffiti and the literary landscape in roman pompeii <\/i>(from which i paraphrased heavily) that this hyper-awareness of gender roles in roman poetry and erotic discourse may point toward a female author. \u00a0\u201can additional proof, and perhaps a more interesting one, is the ways in which throughout the poem she marshals and redeploys negative stereotypes about women to frame her suit<\/b>: from the lisping diminutives in the opening lines \u2026 to the winds which will carry away not a woman\u2019s faithless promises but her hopes for an enduring love affair, to the\u00a0\u2018natural\u2019 instability which, it turns out, marks the lives of men rather than women \u2026 a female poet may (indeed, must) have a different relationship to poetry and poetic discourse from her male counterparts.\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n

(via tinycatfeet<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oh, if only it were permitted for me to hold\u00a0your clasped little arms against my neck and to bring kisses to your tender little lips. Now, go entrust your desires to the winds, girl. Believe me, men\u2019s nature is fickle. Often I lay awake in the middle of the night, love-crushed, thinking these thoughts to … <\/p>\n

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