Kitap 11
1
Tryphaena Well, to be sure! Get a girl to keep company with you, and then turn your back on her! Nothing but tears and groans! The wine was not good enough, I suppose, and you didn’t want a téte-d-téte dinner. Oh yes, I saw you were crying at dinner too. And now it is one continued wail like a baby’s. What is it all about, Charmides? do tell me; let me get that much out of my evening with you.
1
Charmides Love is killing me, Tryphaena; I can stand it no longer.
1
Tryphaena It is not love for me, that is clear. You would not be so cold to me, and push me away when I want to put my arms round you. It really is not fair to keep me off like this! Never mind, tell me who it is; perhaps I may help you to her; I know one ought to make oneself useful.
1
Charmides Oh, you two know each other quite well; she is quite a celebrity.
2
Tryphaena Name, name, Charmides!
2
Charmides Well then—Philematium.
2
Tryphaena Which? there are two of them; one in Piraeus, who has only just come there; Damyllus the governor’s son is in love with her; is it that one? or the other, the one they call The Trap?
2
Charmides Yes, that is she; she has caught me and got me tight, poor mouse.
2
Tryphaena And the tears were all for her?
2
Charmides Even so.
2
Tryphaena Is this recent? or how long has it been going on?
2
Charmides Oh, it is nothing new. I saw her first at the Dionysia; that makes seven months.
2
Tryphaena Had you a full view of her, or did you just see her face and as much as a woman of forty-five likes to show?
2
Charmides Oh, come! I have her word for it she will be two-and-twenty next birthday.
3
Tryphaena Well, which are you going to trust—her word, or your own eyes? Just take a careful look at her temples some day; that is the only place where her own hair shows; all the rest is a thick wig; but at the temples, when the dye fades a little, you can easily detect the grey. But that is nothing; insist on seeing more than her face.
3
Charmides Oh, but I am not favoured so far as that.
