Non Ego Nobilium

Yeah, it's that poem - Amores 3.2 and Ovid going to the races. Though Ovid does seem a bit like he'd be insufferable in person, the poem's still quite light and funny. It's essentially the story of a man going to the races (comparable in popularity to football today) not because he really likes sport but to impress a pretty girl, and consequently daydreaming for about 84 lines. Latin poetry is very vivid because of the Latin language's reliance on participles and ability to move words around almost anywhere in a clause; even without understanding all of Ovid's techniques, such as using religious and military diction for the connotations (and believe me, on first translation I completely skipped over most of the diction), I still got the feeling of sitting under the Italian sun, daydreaming about a pretty girl. Oh, and did I mention this poem's valuable for telling us about Roman attitudes to the races?

'Non ego nobilium sedeo studiosus equorum;
    cui tamen ipsa faves, vincat ut ille, precor.
ut loquerer tecum veni, tecumque sederem,
    ne tibi non notus, quem facis, esset amor.
tu cursus spectas, ego te; spectemus uterque
    quod iuvat, atque oculos pascat uterque suos.
O, cuicumque faves, felix agitator equorum!
    ergo illi curae contigit esse tuae?
hoc mihi contingat, sacro de carcere missis
    insistam forti mente vehendus equis,
et modo lora dabo, modo verbere terga notabo,
    nunc stringam metas interiore rota.
si mihi currenti fueris conspecta, morabor,
    deque meis manibus lora remissa fluent.
at quam paene Pelops Pisaea concidit hasta,
    dum spectat vultus, Hippodamia, tuos!
nempe favore suae vicit tamen ille puellae.
    vincamus dominae quisque favore suae!
Quid frustra refugis? cogit nos linea iungi.
    haec in lege loci commoda circus habet--
tu tamen a dextra, quicumque es, parce puellae;
    contactu lateris laeditur ista tui.
tu quoque, qui spectas post nos, tua contrahe crura,
    si pudor est, rigido nec preme terga genu!
Sed nimium demissa iacent tibi pallia terra.
    collige--vel digitis en ego tollo meis!
invida vestis eras, quae tam bona crura tegebas;
    quoque magis spectes--invida vestis eras!
talia Milanion Atalantes crura fugacis
    optavit manibus sustinuisse suis.
talia pinguntur succinctae crura Dianae
    cum sequitur fortes, fortior ipsa, feras.
his ego non visis arsi; quid fiet ab ipsis?
    in flammam flammas, in mare fundis aquas.
suspicor ex istis et cetera posse placere,
     quae bene sub tenui condita veste latent.
Vis tamen interea faciles arcessere ventos?
    quos faciet nostra mota tabella manu.
an magis hic meus est animi, non aeris aestus,
    captaque femineus pectora torret amor?
dum loquor, alba levi sparsa est tibi pulvere vestis.
    sordide de niveo corpore pulvis abi!
Sed iam pompa venit--linguis animisque favete!
    tempus adest plausus--aurea pompa venit.
prima loco fertur passis Victoria pinnis--
    huc ades et meus hic fac, dea, vincat amor!
plaudite Neptuno, nimium qui creditis undis!
    nil mihi cum pelago; me mea terra capit.
plaude tuo Marti, miles! nos odimus arma;
    pax iuvat et media pace repertus amor.
auguribus Phoebus, Phoebe venantibus adsit!
    artifices in te verte, Minerva, manus!
ruricolae, Cereri teneroque adsurgite Baccho!
    Pollucem pugiles, Castora placet eques!
nos tibi, blanda Venus, puerisque potentibus arcu
    plaudimus; inceptis adnue, diva, meis
daque novae mentem dominae! patiatur amari!
    adnuit et motu signa secunda dedit.
quod dea promisit, promittas ipsa, rogamus;
    pace loquar Veneris, tu dea maior eris.
per tibi tot iuro testes pompamque deorum,
    te dominam nobis tempus in omne peti!
Sed pendent tibi crura. potes, si forte iuvabit,
    cancellis primos inseruisse pedes.
maxima iam vacuo praetor spectacula circo
    quadriiugos aequo carcere misit equos.
cui studeas, video. vincet, cuicumque favebis.
    quid cupias, ipsi scire videntur equi.
me miserum, metam spatioso circuit orbe!
    quid facis? admoto proxumus axe subit.
quid facis, infelix? perdis bona vota puellae.
    tende, precor, valida lora sinistra manu!
favimus ignavo--sed enim revocate, Quirites,
    et date iactatis undique signa togis!
en, revocant!--ac ne turbet toga mota capillos,
    in nostros abdas te licet usque sinus.
Iamque patent iterum reserato carcere postes;
    evolat admissis discolor agmen equis.
nunc saltem supera spatioque insurge patenti!
    sint mea, sint dominae fac rata vota meae!
Sunt dominae rata vota meae, mea vota supersunt.
    ille tenet palmam; palma petenda mea est.'
Risit, et argutis quiddam promisit ocellis.
    'Hoc satis est, alio cetera redde loco!'

I don't sit here as a fan of thoroughbred horses;
But I pray that he whom you favour may win.
I came to talk with you and to sit with you,
so that the love which you cause not be known to you.
You watch the races, I watch you; let us each watch
what pleases us, and let each feast their eyes.
O lucky is the driver of horses whom you yourself favour!
So how has he happened to be an object of your care?
If this were to happen to me, I'd stand over the horses sent from the
sacred starting-gate, about to be carried along with a brave spirit,
and now I'll loosen their reins, now I'll mark their backs with a whip,
now I'll graze the turning post with my innermost wheel.
If I were to catch sight of you while I was racing, I'll delay,
and the slackened reins will flow down from my hands.
How nearly did Pelops die by a Pisaean spear,
while he looked at your face, Hippodamia!
But of course, however, he won with the favour of his girl.
Let each win with the favour of his mistress!
Why do you take to flight in vain? The marker rope drives us to be joined.
The race-course has these advantages of the place in agreement;
but you from the right, whoever you are, be sparing with the girl;
she's injured by the contact of your side.
You also, who watches behind us, draw your shins together,
if you have any decency, neither press her back with your hard knee!
But your mantle, let loose, lies too much on the ground.
Collect it - or look, I'm lifting it with my toes!
You always were jealous, clothes, who were always protecting such good legs;
and by which the more you might look - you were jealous, clothes!
Milanion desired to hold up such legs of fleet-footed Atalanta
with his hands.
That's how they paint such legs of Diana tucked up
when she, more fierce, pursues the fierce beasts.
I burned with these not seen; what will happen from the legs themselves?
You pour blazes into the blaze, water into the sea.
I suspect that from those the rest can also please,
which lie well-hidden under thin clothes.
But do you want, meanwhile, to summon gentle breezes,
which a fan will make, waved by my hand?
Or perhaps this my seething heat is more of my spirit, not of the atmosphere,
and feminine love burns my captured heart?
While I speak, your white cloak is sprinkled with light dust.
Filthy dust, get away from her snow-white body!
But now comes the procession - give good omens with words and minds!
The time for clapping is here - the golden procession comes.
First in position is carried Victory with wings outstretched -
be favourable to me, goddess, and grant that this my love may conquer!
Give a cheer for Neptune, you who trust the seas too much!
I have nothing to do with the open sea; my land charms me.
Give a cheer for your Mars, soldiers! I hate arms;
peace delights and the finding of love in the middle of peace.
Phoebus, may you be favourable to the augurs, Phoebe, may you be favourable to those hunting!
Turn the hands of craftsmen towards yourself, Minerva!
Rustic ones, rise up for Ceres and tender Bacchus!
Let the boxers please Pollux, the horseman Castor!
We give a cheer for you, and with the boy powerful with his bow, sweet Venus; goddess,
be favourable to my plans
and give me the right mind for a new mistress! Let her endure being loved!
She nodded to me and gave favourable signs by her movement.
I ask you yourself promise what the goddess promised;
with all due respect to Venus, I'll say, you'll be the greater goddess.
I swear to you through so many witnesses and the procession of the gods that you'll be
sought as mistress to me for all time!
But your legs are dangling. You can, if by chance it will be pleasing,
put the tips of your feet into the lattices.
The praetor has released the horses from the even box in chariot teams of four horses
with the circus now being empty.
I see who you favour. He will win, whoever you'll favour.
The horses themselves seem to know what you want.
Wretched me, he's going around the turning point in a spacious circle!
What are you doing? The next one comes up behind with his wheel moved close.
What are you doing, unlucky one? You're losing the girl's good hopes.
Stretch, I pray, the left-hand reins with a strong hand!
We backed an idiot - but hold on, call him back, citizens,
and give signs with tossed-about togas on all sides!
See, they're calling him back! - and the moved toga, so that it should not disturb
hair, it is permitted that you may hide yourself deep into the folds of my toga.
And now the door-posts lie open with the starting-box unbolted a second time;
after the horses were released, a procession of different colours rushes out.
Now at least, overcome and rise up over the wide track ahead!
Grant that my hopes and my mistress's hopes may come true!
My mistress's hopes are granted, my hopes are left over.
He holds a palm-tree frond; my palm-tree frond needs to be sought.
He laughed, and he promised something with his piercing eyes.
"This is enough, hand over the rest in another place!"