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

Cupid, Find Me Somebody to Love

Name: [Unknown]  Date:  12th – 13th century CE Region:  [Unknown, Europe] Citation: Ellis, R. Epigrammata Codicis Bodleiani Rawl. BN 109 #2[1]

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.

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[1] Published in Anecdota Oxoniensia Vol 1, Part 5.  (1885) p. 17.

Latin Text:

Tela, Cupido, tene, quoniam non ille nec illa

sustinet esse meus, vel mea. Tela tene,

tela tene! Quid amo? Quod amat?

Non absit. At huius

quod fugit, huius ero? Non ero. Tela 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.