A woman is a fickle, changeful thing!
[Varium et mutabile semper
femina.]Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 4, l. 569ff (4.469-570) [Mercury] (29-19 BC) [tr. Cranch (1872)]
(Source)
Warning Aeneas that Dido is likely to attack Aeneas' forces now that she knows he is deserting her.
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:
Still inconstant is a womans minde.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]
Who knows what hazards thy delay may bring?
Woman's a various and a changeful thing.
[tr. Dryden (1697)]
Woman is a fickle and ever changeable creature.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]
Away to sea! a woman's will
Is changeful and uncertain still.
[tr. Conington (1866)]
Woman is ever a fickle and changing thing.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]
For woman's heart is shifting evermore.
[tr. Morris (1900)]
Away!
Changeful is woman's mood, and varying with the day.
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 73]
A mutable and shifting thing
is woman ever.
[tr. Williams (1910)]
A fickle and changeful thing is woman ever.
[tr. Fairclough (1916)]
A shifty, fickle object
Is woman, always.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]
Woman was ever
A veering, weathercock creature.
[tr. Day-Lewis (1952)]
An ever
uncertain and inconsistent thing is woman.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), l. 786-87]
Woman's a thing
Forever fitful and forever changing.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981)]
Women are unstable creatures, always changing.
[tr. West (1990)]
Woman is ever fickle and changeable.
[tr. Kline (2002)]
A woman is a fickle and worrisome thing.
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]
Woman’s a thing
that’s always changing, shifting like the wind.
[tr. Fagles (2006), l. 710-11]
Females are a fickle thing, always prone to change.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]
See also:
