Ludovico Ariosto: "Do you even know yourself?"

Philippa's Tomb

A weighty slab of marble keeps Philippa trapped.

With less, her husband feared, she might've escaped.

*

Who was I, you ask? Well, Philippa was my name.

No, no more questions. I'll not play that game.

Let's say, “A woman, I found no womanly thing alien,”

and hope you'll take that in the good sense I mean.

Something personal? Do you even know yourself?

Now, mind your own business and bugger off.

[ Epigram: Marmoris ingenti sub pondere clausa ]

Marmoris ingenti sub pondere clausa Philippa est:
Cavit vir tandem ne ulterius fugeret.

*

Quaeris quae fuerim? Me scito fuisse Philippam:

Plura rogas? Nolo plura loqui, nisi quod

Nil alienum a me mulier muliebre putavi:

Hoc, heus! in partem accipe, quaeso, bonam.

Quid tibi vis? An me interius vis nosse? Quid ipsum

Ten noscis? Prior haec sit tibi cura, et abi.