Find Me Somebody to Love: A 12th century Love Poem

Tela, Cupido, tene, quoniam non ille nec illa

sustinet esse meus, vel mea. Tele tene,

tela tene! Quid amo? Quod amat? Non absit. At huius

quod fugit, huius ero? Non ero. Tele tene,

tela tene! Quia non teneo quod amo tenuisse.

An dixi quod amo? Non amo! Tela tene,

tela tene, vel tange parem. Nec feceris imo,

dico tibi, sine! Vel tange, Cupido, parem.

--Ellis, R. Epigrammata Codicis Bodleiani Rawl. BN 109 #2. Published in Anecdota Oxoniensia Vol 1, Part 5.  (1885) p. 17.

 

 

Cupid, hold your fire!

For neither my boyfriend

Nor my girlfriend

stays true to me.

Hold your fire, hold your fire!

What’s my type? A person who loves!

May I find one soon.

But should I date someone

Who ghosts me? NOPE!

Hold your fire, hold your fire!

For I will not cherish a person

who I’d “love that I had dated once.”

Did I just say “a person I love”?

Nope! I’m not in love.

Hold your fire,  hold your fire,

Or find me an equal.

Please don’t do this—I’m telling you—please stop!

Or, Cupid,

 find me an equal.