To his Wife - Decimius Magnus Ausonius

Love, let us live as we have lived, nor lose

The little names that were the first night’s grace,

And never come the day that sees us old,

I still your lad, and you my little lass.

Let me be older than old Nestor’s years,

And you the Sibyl, if we heed it not.

What should we know, we two, of ripe old age?

We’ll have its richness, and the years forgot.

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Decimius Magnus Ausonius (310 - 395) France

Translated by Helen Waddell

Source: Mediaeval Latin lyrics by Helen Waddell, Henry Holt and Company, 1938