Now, my light, don’t let me be such a hot mess
as I seemed to be a few days ago,
if, in all my foolish youth, I ever did anything
that I’d admit I’ve regretted more
than leaving you alone last night,
longing to disguise my burning.

Ne tibi sim, mea lux, aeque iam fervida cura
ac videor paucos ante fuisse dies,
si quicquam tota commisi stulta iuventa
cuius me fatear paenituisse magis,
hesterna quam te solum quod nocte reliqui,
ardorem cupiens dissimulare meum.

*Translator’s note: scholarly consensus now holds that this untitled epigram is the only surviving poem in classical Latin to have been written by a woman.