In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas
corpora; di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas)
adspirate meis primaque ab origine mundi
ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen.
My heart brings me to sing of new
Bodies into which shapes were turned;
Gods, who forced them also to change,
Be good to my incipient work,
And lead my song, unbroken thread,
From the world’s birth right to my times.
Ovid, Metamorphoses
translated by René de Nicolay