Your Girlfriend is a Catalogue of Scents

Antonio Beccadelli,

Epigram to Giovanni Marrasio:

Cupid gave his golden spears to Angelina’s eyes,

And granted his torches to her cheeks at his mother’s command.

Her mouth smells like nectar, her head like ambrosia, her breast like cardamom,

And – I pass over this entirely – her vagina smells like balsam.

This same girl fastens true loves around her neck

And from the lap of Venus the divine girl grows warm.

The Sicilian poet Marrasio burns for her:

Certainly, Marrasio wishes to die in love.

Angelinae oculis dedit aurea tela Cupido

Donavitque genis, matre iubente, faces.

Os nectar, caput ambrosiam, flat pectus amomum

Et, quod praetereo, balsama cunnus olet,

Haec eadem collo veros adnectit amores

Deque sinu Veneris diva puella calet.

Hanc olim Siculus vates Marrasius ardet:

Marrasius certe vult in amore mori.