I Will Never Be Yours: An Ace Daphne Confronts Apollo, M. Marullus

I am now safe from your divinity,

as a newly transformed bay tree;

I, a maiden who was mean to her stalker.

And now he hugs my naked branches and tells me to rejoice that I am now his.

I may be yours, but I’ll not be your spouse.

--M. Marullus, Picta Poesis Ovidiana (1580) 

 

Tuta suis monstris, et iam nova Laurea Daphne:

Aspera amatori sic quoque virgo suo:

Nunc ait, exulta ramos complexus inanes:

Ut tua sim, coniunx non ero nempe tua.