Dure vir

Harsh husband, with a guard placed upon your tender girl
you do nothing; each one should be regarded as her own character.
If any woman is chaste even with her fear taken away, she's chaste in the end;
anyone who doesn't do it because she's not allowed, she's doing it!
As much as you watch over your body well, your mind is an adulteress;
and none can be guarded that she might not wish.
And you can't watch over the body, even if you were to shut up everything;
even with everyone shut out, there'll be an adulterer within.
Anyone who is allowed to sin, sins less; the opportunity itself
makes weaker seeds of worthlessness.
Believe me, cease to aggravate vices by forbidding;
by your compliance you'll defeat those more suitably.
Recently I saw a stubborn horse going against its bonds with resisting mouth
like a thunderbolt;
it halted as soon as its reins yielded
and the reins lay loose, poured out on its mane!
We always struggle towards the forbidden and desire the denied;
in just the same way a sick man is bent upon the forbidden waters.
Argus wore a hundred eyes on his brow, a hundred on his neck -
and Love alone often deceived them;
Danae, who had been a virgin handed over into a room long-lasting by iron and
rock, was a mother;
Penelope remained pure, although she was lacking a guard,
among so many young suitors.
Whatever is watched over we desire more, and the care itself
calls the thief; what the other permits few love.
And that girl doesn't please with her face, but with the love of her husband;
they think what has got you in its grip is really something.
A man looks after she who does not become good, but a dear adulteress;
fear itself has a greater value than her body.
It's allowed that you're offended, it's the forbidden pleasure that delights;
any woman who can say "I'm afraid!" she alone pleases.
But to watch over a free-born girl isn't right -
let this fear worry the bodies of a foreign race!
I suppose it's so that her guard may be able to say "I did it";
is it for the credit of your slave that she's to be chaste?
A wife who takes lovers hurts he who is rustic greatly,
and does not sufficiently appreciate the customs known of Rome
in which Romulus son of Ilia and Remus son of Ilia were not born of Mars without
crime.
Why choose for yourself a beautiful girl only if that chaste girl didn't please you?
These things cannot go together in any ways.
If you are wise, be kind to your lady and
put aside your severe expression, and don't regard the laws of stern men,
and your wife shall have given you what she gives many friends you cultivate.
Thus great benefit comes your way with very little work;
thus you'll always be able to go into the feasts of young men
and you'll see much at home which you shall not have given.