Book T, III.

IX: 1-34 The Origins of Tomis

So there are Greek cities here whod believe it?
among the place-names of the savage barbarians:
here too colonists came, sent by the Miletians,
to found Greek holdings among the Getae.
But its ancient name, older than the citys founding,
was derived for it from Absyrtuss murder.
Since wicked Medea, fleeing the father shed left,
in the Argo, that ship built with the protection
of warlike Minerva, and first to course through
these unknown seas, rested its oars in these shallows.
A look-out on a high hill saw Aeetes ship far-off,
and said: A guest from Colchis, I know the sail.
While the Argonauts rushed to loose the cables,
while the anchor was raised swiftly by ready hands,
the Colchian struck her breast, knowing her guilt,
with a hand that dared and would dare much evil,
and though her mind retained its great courage,
there was a pallor over the girls troubled face.
So, watching the approaching sail, she cried:
Were caught: my father must be delayed by some trick.
While she thought what to do, gazing around her,
her eyes fell, by chance, on her brother.
Aware now of his presence, she said: I have it:
his death will be the means of my salvation.
While he was unsuspecting, fearing no such attack,
she quickly stabbed his innocent heart with a sword.
Then she tore him apart, and scattered his limbs
through the fields, to be found in many places.
And lest her father did not realise, high on a rock,
she set the bloodless hands, and blood-stained head,
so her father would be delayed by this new grief,
gathering those lifeless fragments, on a sad trail.
So this place was called Tomis, because they say
it was here the sister cut up her brothers body.

Book T, III. X: 1-40 Winter in Tomis

If anyone there still remembers exiled Ovid,
if my names alive in the city now Im gone,
let him know that, beneath the stars that never
touch the sea, I live among the barbarian races.
The Sarmatians, a wild tribe, surround me, the Bessi
and the Getae, names unworthy of my wit!
While the warm winds still blow, the Danube between
defends us: with his flood he prevents war.
And when dark winter shows its icy face,
and the earth is white with marbled frost,
when Boreas and the snow constrain life under the Bears,
those tribes must be hard-pressed by the shivering sky.

Book T, III. XII: 1-54 Spring in Tomis

Zephyrus lessens the cold, now the past years done,
a Black Sea winter that seemed longer than those of old,
and the Ram that failed to carry Helle on its back,
makes the hours of night and day equal now.
Now laughing boys and girls gather the violets
that grow, un-sown, born of the countryside:
and the meadows bloom with many flowers,
and the song-birds welcome spring, untaught:
and the swallow, denying the name of wicked Procne,
builds her nest with its little roof under the eaves:
and the shoots that lay hid, buried in the wheat furrows,
show through, unfurl their tender tips from the earth.
Wherever the vine grows, buds break from the stem:
but vines grow far away from these Getic shores:
wherever theres a tree, the trees twigs are bursting,
but trees grow far away from these Getic lands.