Marbodus (ca. 1035 – 11 September 1123) was archdeacon and schoolmaster at Angers, France, then Bishop of Rennes in Brittany. He was a respected poet, hagiographer, and hymnologist.

I have to smile wryly at the last instruction in the last two lines. But then if the young lover had kept these to himself, we’d never had seen them.

Horace composed an ode about a certain boy

Who could easily enough have been a pretty girl.

Over his ivory neck flowed hair

Brighter than yellow gold, the kind I have always loved.

His forehead was white as snow, his luminous eyes black as pitch

His unfledged cheeks full of pleasing sweetness

When they gleamed bright white and red.

His now was straight, lips blazing, teeth lovely,

Chin shaped after a perfectly proportioned model.

Anyone wondering about the body which lay hidden under his clothes

Would be gratified, for the boy’s body matched his face.

The sight of his face, radiant and full of beauty,

Kindled the observer’s heart with the torch of love.

But this boy – so beautiful, so extraordinary,

An enticement to anyone catching sight of him –

Nature had molded wild and stern:

He would sooner die than consent to love.

Rough and thankless, like a tiger cub,

He only laughed at the gentlest words of a suitor,

Laughed at a sighing lover’s tears,

He mocked those he himself caused to die.

Wicked indeed, this one, and as cruel as wicked,

Who with this vice in his character keeps his body from being his glory.

A handsome face demands a good mind, and a yielding one,

Not puffed up but ready for anything.

The little flower of youth is fleeting and too brief;

It soon witherws, falls, and knows not how to revive.

This flesh is now so smooth, so milky, so unblemished,

So good, so handsome, so slipper, so tender.

Yet the time will come when it will become ugly and rough,

When this flesh, dear boyish flesh, will become worthless.

Therefore, while you flower, take up riper practices.

While you are in demand and able, be not slow to yield to an eager lover.

For this you will be prized, not made lsss of.

These words of my reques, most beloved,

Are sent to you alone; do not show them to many others.