Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Nor lacking looks nor wanting wit,
  2. When hied we thither, mid us three
  3. Fell various talk, as how might be
  4. Bithynia now, and how it fared,
  5. And if some coin I made or spared.
  6. "There was no cause (I soothly said)
  7. "The Praetors or the Cohort made
  8. Thence to return with oilier head;
  9. The more when ruled by---
  10. Praetor, as pile the Cohort rating."
  11. Quoth they, "But certes as 'twas there
  12. The custom rose, some men to bear
  13. Litter thou boughtest ?" I to her
  14. To seem but richer, wealthier,
  15. Cry, "Nay, with me 'twas not so ill
  16. That, given the Province suffered, still
  17. Eight stiff-backed loons I could not buy.'
  18. (Withal none here nor there owned I
  19. Who broken leg of Couch outworn
  20. On nape of neck had ever borne!)
  21. Then she, as pathic piece became,
  22. "Prithee Catullus mine, those same
  23. Lend me, Serapis-wards I'd hie." ---
  24. "Easy, on no-wise, no," quoth I,
  25. "Whate'er was mine, I lately said
  26. Is some mistake, my camarade
  27. One Cinna-Gaius-bought the lot,
  28. But his or mine, it matters what?
  29. I use it freely as though bought,
  30. Yet thou, pert troubler, most absurd,
  31. 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;