Three Hundred Guests Poem by gershon hepner

Three hundred guests, not one of whom I wish to meet,
and yet you wonder why I don’t enjoy your treat;
your boring guests are very hard to mitigate,
so I would rather stay at home than litigate.

Inspired byepigram xxxv in Book XI of Martial’s Epigrams:

Ignotos mihi cum voces trecentos,
quare non veniam vocatus ad te
miraris quererisque litigasque.
Solus ceno, Fabulle, non libenter,

James Michie translates:

Three hundred guests, not one of whomI know-
And you as host wonder that I won’t go.
Don’t quarrel with me, I’m not being rude:
I can’t enjoy sociable solitude.


2/19/08