Love, you tyrant!
To what extremes won’t you compel our hearts?[Improbe Amor, quid non mortalia pectora cogis!]
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 4, l. 412 (4.412) (29-19 BC) [tr. Fagles (2006), ll. 518-19]
(Source)
(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:Impious love,
What canst not thou compell in mortall brests?
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]All-pow'rful Love! what changes canst thou cause
In human hearts, subjected to thy laws!
[tr. Dryden (1697)]Unrelenting love, how irresistible is they sway over the minds of mortals!
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]Curst love! what lengths of tyrant scorn
Wreak'st not on those of woman born?
[tr. Conington (1866)]Accursèd power of love, what mortal hearts
Dost thou not force to obey thee!
[tr. Cranch (1872), ll. 544-45]Injurious Love, to what dost thou not compel mortal hearts!
[tr. Mackail (1885)]O evil Love, where wilt thou not drive on a mortal breast?
[tr. Morris (1900)]O tyrant love, so potent to subdue!
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 53, l. 473]Relentless Love,
to what mad courses may not mortal hearts
by thee be driven?
[tr. Williams (1910), l. 409ff]O tyrant Love, to what dost thou not drive the hearts of men!
[tr. Fairclough (1916)]There is nothing to which the hearts of men and women
Cannot be driven by love.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]Excess of love, to what lengths you drive our human hearts!
[tr. Day Lewis (1952)]Voracious Love, to what do you not drive
the hearts of men?
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), ll. 566-67]Unconscionable Love,
To what extremes will you not drive our hearts!
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981), ll. 571-72]Love is a cruel master. There are no lengths to which it does not force the human heart.
[tr. West (1990)]Cruel Love, to what do you not drive the human heart? [tr. Kline (2002)]Cruel Love, what do you not force human hearts to bear?
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]Cursed love, you make us stoop to anything.
[tr. Bartsch (2021)]