Robert the Chaplain [Robertus Capellanus]
13th c. AD, Scotland
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Medieval Era)
ANDREAS CAPELLANUS
DE AMORE LIBER PRIMUS
PRAEFATIO
[1] Cogit me multum assidua tuae dilectionis instantia, Gualteri venerande amice,
[The eager insistence of your delight greatly forces me, my respectable friend of Gualterio,]
ut meo tibi debeam famine propalare mearumque manuum scriptis docere
[to make me feel obligated to teach you, using my hunger and things written by hands,]
qualiter inter amantes illaesus possit amoris status conservari,
[in the very same way that the condition of love, unharmed between lovers, can be protected,]
pariterve qui non amantur quibus modis sibi cordi affixa valeant Veneris iacula declinare.
[and in the similar fashion as those who are not loved for any reasons except that they are able to lay low Venus' arrows, once they've pierced into their hearts.]
[2] Asseris te namque novum amoris militem novaque ipsius sauciatum sagitta illius nescire apte gubernare frena caballi, nec ullum posse tibi remedium invenire.
[Whereafter you will've made yourself a new soldier of love, and once wounded by her strange arrow, you will be unable to know how to handle the reigns of that one's horse, nor able to find any remedy for yourself.]
Quod quam sit grave quamque molestet meum animum nullis tibi possem sermonibus explicare.
[It's something that, rather than be a matter of concern, or something vexing my mind, I can by no form of speech explain to you.]
[3] Novi enim et manifesto experimento percepi quod qui Veneris est servituti obnoxius nil valet perpensius cogitare
[you see, I know and have perceived by open experience that which a person--who is not harmed by a servitude to Love---cannot in any respect think about more carefully]
nisi ut aliquid semper valeat suis actibus operari,
[except to always be able to control something through his own actions,]
quo magis possit ipsius illa queari catenis;
[, rather than he able to inquire about the reasons for his own bondage;]
