Carmina

Catullus

Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.

  1. Led me my Varus to his flame,
  2. As I from Forum idling came.
  3. Forthright some whorelet judged I it
  4. Nor lacking looks nor wanting wit,
  5. When hied we thither, mid us three
  6. Fell various talk, as how might be
  7. Bithynia now, and how it fared,
  8. And if some coin I made or spared.
  9. "There was no cause (I soothly said)
  10. "The Praetors or the Cohort made
  11. Thence to return with oilier head;
  12. The more when ruled by---
  13. Praetor, as pile the Cohort rating."
  14. Quoth they, "But certes as 'twas there
  15. The custom rose, some men to bear
  16. Litter thou boughtest ?" I to her
  17. To seem but richer, wealthier,
  18. Cry, "Nay, with me 'twas not so ill
  19. That, given the Province suffered, still
  20. Eight stiff-backed loons I could not buy.'
  21. (Withal none here nor there owned I
  22. Who broken leg of Couch outworn
  23. On nape of neck had ever borne!)
  24. Then she, as pathic piece became,
  25. "Prithee Catullus mine, those same
  26. Lend me, Serapis-wards I'd hie." ---
  27. "Easy, on no-wise, no," quoth I,
  28. "Whate'er was mine, I lately said
  29. Is some mistake, my camarade
  30. One Cinna-Gaius-bought the lot,
  31. But his or mine, it matters what?
  32. I use it freely as though bought,
  33. Yet thou, pert troubler, most absurd,
  34. None suffer'st speak an idle word."
  1. Furius and Aurelius, Catullus' friends,
  2. Whether extremest Indian shore he brave,
  3. Strands where far-resounding billow rends
  4. The shattered wave,
  5. Or 'mid Hyrcanians dwell he, Arabs soft and wild,
  6. Sacis and Parthians of the arrow fain,
  7. Or where the Seven-mouth'd Nilus mud-defiled
  8. Tinges the Main,
  9. Or climb he lofty Alpine Crest and note
  10. Works monumental, Caesar's grandeur telling,
  11. Rhine Gallic, horrid Ocean and remote
  12. Britons low-dwelling;
  13. All these (whatever shall the will design
  14. Of Heaven-homed Gods) Oh ye prepared to tempt;
  15. Announce your briefest to that damsel mine
  16. In words unkempt :—
  17. Live she and love she wenchers several,
  18. Embrace three hundred wi' the like requitals,
  19. None truly loving and withal of all
  20. Bursting the vitals:
  21. My love regard she not, my love of yore,
  22. Which fell through fault of her, as falls the fair
  23. Last meadow-floret whenas passed it o'er
  24. touch of the share.
  1. Marrúcinus Asinius! ill thou usest
  2. That hand sinistral in thy wit and wine
  3. Filching the napkins of more heedless hosts.
  4. Dost find this funny? Fool it passeth thee
  5. How 'tis a sordid deed, a sorry jest.
  6. Dost misbelieve me? Trust to Pollio,
  7. Thy brother, ready to compound such thefts
  8. E'en at a talent's cost; for he's a youth
  9. In speech past master and in fair pleasantries.
  10. Of hendecasyllabics hundreds three
  11. Therefore expect thou, or return forthright
  12. Linens whose loss affects me not for worth
  13. But as mementoes of a comrade mine.
  14. For napkins Saetaban from Ebro-land
  15. Fabúllus ent me a free giftie given
  16. Also Veránius: these perforce I love
  17. E'en as my Veraniólus and Fabúllus.