• CALL it not love when the delighted eye
Is lured by charms into captivity;
But when wild fires for weak attractions waste:
To pine for beauty is not love but taste.
• R. Garnett, Idylls and Epigrams (1869), p. 15.
Οὐκ ἔσθ᾽ οὗτος ἔρως, εἴ τις καλὸν εἶδος ἔχουσαν
βούλετ᾽ ἔχειν, φρονίμοις ὄμμασι πειθόμενος:
ἀλλ᾽ ὅστις κακόμορφον ἰδών, τετορημένος ἰοῖς
στέργει, μαινομένης ἐκ φρενὸς αἰθόμενος,
οὗτος ἔρως, πῦρ τοῦτο: τὰ γὰρ καλὰ πάντας ὁμοίως
τέρπει τοὺς κρίνειν εἶδος ἐπισταμένους.
• That is not love if one, trusting his judicious eyes, wishes to possess a beauty. But he who seeing a homely face is pierced by the arrows and loves, set alight by fury of the heart—that is love, that is fire; for beauty delights equally all who are good judges of form.
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Οὐκ ἔσθ᾽ οὗτος ἔρως, εἴ τις καλὸν εἶδος ἔχουσαν
βούλετ᾽ ἔχειν, φρονίμοις ὄμμασι πειθόμενος:
ἀλλ᾽ ὅστις κακόμορφον ἰδών, τετορημένος ἰοῖς
στέργει, μαινομένης ἐκ φρενὸς αἰθόμενος,
οὗτος ἔρως, πῦρ τοῦτο: τὰ γὰρ καλὰ πάντας ὁμοίως
τέρπει τοὺς κρίνειν εἶδος ἐπισταμένους.
• That is not love if one, trusting his judicious eyes, wishes to possess a beauty. But he who seeing a homely face is pierced by the arrows and loves, set alight by fury of the heart—that is love, that is fire; for beauty delights equally all who are good judges of form." in the context of "W. R. Paton, Greek Anthology, i, 171.
• CALL it not love when the delighted eye
Is lured by charms into captivity;
But when wild fires for weak attractions waste:
To pine for beauty is not love but taste.
• R. Garnett, Idylls and Epigrams (1869), p. 15." to mean that wisdom is timeless.