'Narcissus' read by Ben Cartlidge - from Ovid's Metamorphoses

Narcissus

Read by Ben Cartlidge

Metamorphoses 3.454-73

Narcissus is consumed by love for a figure he sees in the pond, only to realise this boy is his own self.

‘Quisquis es, huc exi! quid me, puer unice, fallis
quove petitus abis? certe nec forma nec aetas
est mea, quam fugias; et amarunt me quoque nymphae.
spem mihi nescio quam vultu promittis amico,
cumque ego porrexi tibi bracchia, porrigis ultro;
cum risi, adrides; lacrimas quoque saepe notavi
me lacrimante tuas; nutu quoque signa remittis
et, quantum motu formosi suspicor oris,
verba refers aures non pervenientia nostras.
iste ego sum! sensi, nec me mea fallit imago.
uror amore mei, flammas moveoque feroque.
quid faciam? roger anne rogem? quid deinde rogabo?
quod cupio mecum est; inopem me copia fecit.
o utinam a nostro secedere corpore possem!
votum in amante novum: vellem quod amamus abesset.
iamque dolor vires adimit nec tempora vitae
longa meae superant primoque exstinguor in aevo.
nec mihi mors gravis est posituro morte dolores;
hic qui diligitur vellem diuturnior esset.
nunc duo concordes anima moriemur in una.’

‘Come out here whoever you are! Why deceive me, you exceptional boy? Where do you go when I try to reach you? Surely my looks and age do not deserve your flight; nymphs too have loved me! You hold out some hope with your friendly face, and when I reach my arms to you, you offer yours as well. When I laughed, so do you; and often I detected your tears when I’m crying myself. At my nod too you return the sign; and as I suspect from the movement of your lovely lips you give answers to my words which won’t reach my ears.

‘I am he. Now I know it, and my reflection does not deceive me. I burn with desire for myself: I light the flames and feel their heat. What shall I do? Shall I be wooed or woo? Then why shall I woo? What I desire is a part of me: having it leaves me helpless. Oh, if only I could part from my body! What a strange prayer for a lover, to want what I love to be parted from me.

‘And now grief is stealing my strength. There is no long life before me, I die in my prime. But death is nothing to me, for in dying I shall put aside these pains. I would want my beloved to survive a while longer; but now the two of us will die together in one breath.’