Pervigilium Veneris

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Pervigilium Veneris, the Vigil of Venus, is a Latin poem, probably written in the 4th century. It is generally thought to have been by one Tiberianus, due to strong similarities with the latter's poem "Amnis ibat". It was written professedly in early spring on the eve of a three-nights' festival of Venus (probably April 1–3). The setting seems to be Sicily. The poem describes the annual awakening of the vegetable and animal world through the goddess. It is notable because of its focus on the natural world - something never before seen in Roman poetry - which marks the transition from Roman poetry to Medieval poetry. It consists of ninety-three verses in trochaic septenarii, and is divided into strophes of unequal length by the refrain:

"Cras amet qui numquam amavit; quique amavit cras amet."

["Let him love tomorrow who has never loved, and let him who has loved love tomorrow."]

The poem ends with the nightingale's song, and a poignant expression of personal sorrow:

"illa cantat; nos tacemus; quando ver venit meum?"

["She sings; I am silent; when will my springtime come?"]

[edit] References

Editio princeps (1577)

Modern editions by

Franz Bücheler (1859)
Alexander Riese, in Anthologia latino (1869)
E. Bahrens in Umdierte lateinische Gedichte (1877)
S. G. Owen (with Catullus, 1893).

There are translations into English verse by Thomas Stanley (1651) and Thomas Parnell, author of The Hermit; on the text see John William Mackail in Journal of Philology (1888), vol. xvii.