1
If you go to the house of wealthy people,
the dinner has no taste,
the fish has no taste,
the meat has no taste;
even perfumes and flowers
effuse only a stench
unless you all sit down
at an ivory table.
An ivory table
on an ivory leopard
with its mouth wide open,
a huge mouth;
a table bought
at the gates of Egypt,
a nice, elegant table
made of elephant teeth.
I don’t even have ivory
pawns or dice,
nor knife handles
- they, too, are made of bone -
yet it never happened to me
to have rotten dishes;
to me, the taste of chicken
is never a disaster.
I don’t have an ivory table
on an ivory leopard
with its mouth wide open,
a huge mouth;
a table bought
at the gates of Egypt,
a nice, elegant table
made of elephant teeth.
I even lack a servant
who quarters rams and hares,
who quarters steers and pigs
using special techniques;
yet, when I’m eating,
you can smell a perfume in the air,
a perfume you can catch
all over the Suburra.2
I don’t have an ivory table
on an ivory leopard
with its mouth wide open,
a huge mouth;
a table bought
at the gates of Egypt,
a nice, elegant table
made of elephant teeth.
I don’t have an ivory table
on an ivory leopard
with its mouth wide open,
a huge mouth;
a table bought
at the gates of Egypt,
a nice, elegant table
made of elephant teeth.
1. This song was inspired by Satire XI by Juvenal (Decimus Iunius Iuvenalis).2. Suburra was a highly populated area of ancient Rome.