illustration form The Vicar of Wakefield, by RackhamLyrics of Oliver Goldsmith, Translated into Latin by Joseph S. Salemi The Society July 7, 2025 Poetry, Translation 4 Comments . When Lovely Woman Stoops to Folly… by Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) When lovely woman stoops to folly, And finds too late that men betray, What charm can soothe her melancholy, What art can wash her guilt away? The only art her guilt to cover, To hide her shame from every eye, To give repentance to her lover, And wring his bosom—is to die. . Translation into Latin by Joseph S. Salemi Cum delabitur in vitium perpulchra puella, Seroque experta est fraudem hominumque dolos, Maestitiam bene quod carmen tunc mulceat istam, Abluat ars quaenam spurcitiam et vitium? Indignum crimen si vult celare puella, Abdere conspectu flagitiumque suum, Ac poenis meritis sceleratum prosequi amantem, Et cruciare animum, sponte sua pereat. . Translator’s Note These lovely tetrameter lyrics of Oliver Goldsmith (1728-1774) are from his novel The Vicar of Wakefield. They are sung by the character Olivia Primrose, after her seduction and abandonment by a faithless lover. They have become well known, and were partially parodied by T.S. Eliot in The Waste Land, where he uses them to describe a bored typist after an act of uninspiring intercourse. I have translated them as Latin elegiac couplets, a meter often used by Roman poets as a vehicle for non-heroic poetry. I cannot answer for the quality of my Latin translation, but I believe it is very accurate as regards the meaning of Goldsmith’s English. . . Joseph S. Salemi has published five books of poetry, and his poems, translations and scholarly articles have appeared in over one hundred publications world-wide. He is the editor of the literary magazine TRINACRIA and writes for Expansive Poetry On-line. He teaches in the Department of Humanities at New York University and in the Department of Classical Languages at Hunter College. NOTE TO READERS: If you enjoyed this poem or other content, please consider making a donation to the Society of Classical Poets. The Society of Classical Poets does not endorse any views expressed in individual poems or commentary. ***Read Our Comments Policy Here*** 4 Responses Roy Eugene Peterson July 7, 2025 I remember who Oliver Goldsmith was, but I do not recall this particular poem. I suppose one can take “die” either literally or figuratively. I really like the English poem and am certain you make a great translation, because you are you. Reply Joseph S. Salemi July 7, 2025 Thank you, LTC Peterson. The translation was done many years ago. When a respectable girl found herself in an embarrassing predicament in the 18th century, she really had only two socially acceptable choices: get the responsible male to marry her; or take her own life. A lower-class girl had more freedom, since sexual affairs, common-law marriages, and bastardy were very frequent in her milieu. Reply Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 This is a fascinating switch on the typical translation, Joe! We are far more used to seeing ancient Latin translated into modern or slightly archaic English than we are to English being translated into Latin. But there is great fun in this exercise for the those who love both ancient and modern poetry, as well as for the linguistic dilettante who is privileged to see how the translation road goes both ways. I have a book called X-Treme Latin which is full of irreverant Latin phrases, including insults and cuss words and although I don’t use them it’s enjoyable to know them, to see that Latin is not a dead language and is as capable as English of beautiful (if different) expression. I always enjoy analyzing the etymology of words as well — to see how a word like “fraudem” is the ancestor of the word “fraud” or “cruciare” is the ancestor of “excruciating.” Along these lines, I sense that you have actually expanded the text a little since Latin is usually so much more economical than English because it is so heavily inflected. My Latin is weak at best. Does “Et cruciare animum” mean “to torture his soul”? If so, I would regard that as a deepening of meaning and an improvement upon the original which, though beautiful, is not as shattering. It’s a treat to read this. Reply Joseph S. Salemi July 7, 2025 Dear Brian — Deepest thanks or your comments. Yes — “Et cruciare animum” does basically mean “and to torture his soul.” This Latin rendering of the English “And wring his bosom” is somewhat extreme, but there is a problem when translating Latin which is parallel with the problem of translating any rhyming foreign poem into rhyming English. Putting a rhyming poem into an English translation that also rhymes means that you have to wrack your brain for not just English words that have an appropriate meaning, but that also fit into the rhyme scheme you are using. Since ancient Latin poetry doesn’t rhyme, a translation of English into Latin doesn’t have to do that. But you have this knotty problem: you have to maintain the Latin meter of long and short syllables, and this means finding Latin words that not only mean what the English says, but that also have to fit a certain quantitative metrical scheme. It’s just as tough as translating something into rhyme. In some cases it’s just not possible. I was very lucky with these Goldsmith lyrics. Reply Leave a Reply Cancel ReplyYour email address will not be published.CommentName* Email* Website Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting. Δ This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Roy Eugene Peterson July 7, 2025 I remember who Oliver Goldsmith was, but I do not recall this particular poem. I suppose one can take “die” either literally or figuratively. I really like the English poem and am certain you make a great translation, because you are you. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi July 7, 2025 Thank you, LTC Peterson. The translation was done many years ago. When a respectable girl found herself in an embarrassing predicament in the 18th century, she really had only two socially acceptable choices: get the responsible male to marry her; or take her own life. A lower-class girl had more freedom, since sexual affairs, common-law marriages, and bastardy were very frequent in her milieu. Reply
Brian Yapko July 7, 2025 This is a fascinating switch on the typical translation, Joe! We are far more used to seeing ancient Latin translated into modern or slightly archaic English than we are to English being translated into Latin. But there is great fun in this exercise for the those who love both ancient and modern poetry, as well as for the linguistic dilettante who is privileged to see how the translation road goes both ways. I have a book called X-Treme Latin which is full of irreverant Latin phrases, including insults and cuss words and although I don’t use them it’s enjoyable to know them, to see that Latin is not a dead language and is as capable as English of beautiful (if different) expression. I always enjoy analyzing the etymology of words as well — to see how a word like “fraudem” is the ancestor of the word “fraud” or “cruciare” is the ancestor of “excruciating.” Along these lines, I sense that you have actually expanded the text a little since Latin is usually so much more economical than English because it is so heavily inflected. My Latin is weak at best. Does “Et cruciare animum” mean “to torture his soul”? If so, I would regard that as a deepening of meaning and an improvement upon the original which, though beautiful, is not as shattering. It’s a treat to read this. Reply
Joseph S. Salemi July 7, 2025 Dear Brian — Deepest thanks or your comments. Yes — “Et cruciare animum” does basically mean “and to torture his soul.” This Latin rendering of the English “And wring his bosom” is somewhat extreme, but there is a problem when translating Latin which is parallel with the problem of translating any rhyming foreign poem into rhyming English. Putting a rhyming poem into an English translation that also rhymes means that you have to wrack your brain for not just English words that have an appropriate meaning, but that also fit into the rhyme scheme you are using. Since ancient Latin poetry doesn’t rhyme, a translation of English into Latin doesn’t have to do that. But you have this knotty problem: you have to maintain the Latin meter of long and short syllables, and this means finding Latin words that not only mean what the English says, but that also have to fit a certain quantitative metrical scheme. It’s just as tough as translating something into rhyme. In some cases it’s just not possible. I was very lucky with these Goldsmith lyrics. Reply
