Paint a whitelimbed girl for me
Such as love himself might fashion;
So that nothing hidden be,
Paint her with a lover's passion.
Through her silken garments show
All her body's rosy wonder—
Love will set your sense aglow,
Longing tear your heart asunder.
Call it, when your work you scan,
"Portrait of a wretched man."
Pinge, precor, pictor, tali candore puellam,
Qualem pinxit Amor, qualem meus ignis anhelat.
Nil pingendo neges; tegat omnia Serica vestis,
Quae totum prodat tenui velamine corpus.
Te quoque pulset amor, crucient pigmenta medullas:
Si bonus es pictor, miseri suspiria pinge.
Qualem pinxit Amor, qualem meus ignis anhelat.
Nil pingendo neges; tegat omnia Serica vestis,
Quae totum prodat tenui velamine corpus.
Te quoque pulset amor, crucient pigmenta medullas:
Si bonus es pictor, miseri suspiria pinge.
Original text (Latin)