Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. (Bride-wife daintier bred than ever was delicate kidlet,
  2. Worthier diligent watch than grape-bunch blackest and ripest)
  3. Suffers her sport as she please nor rates her even at hair's worth,
  4. Nowise 'stirring himself, but lying log-like as alder
  5. Felled and o'er floating the fosse of safe Ligurian woodsman,
  6. Feeling withal, as though such spouse he never had own'd;
  7. So this marvel o' mine sees naught, and nothing can hear he,
  8. What he himself, an he be or not be, wholly unknowing.
  9. Now would I willingly pitch such wight head first fro' thy bridge,
  10. Better a-sudden t'arouse that numskull's stolid old senses,
  11. Or in the sluggish mud his soul supine to deposit
  12. Even as she-mule casts iron shoe where quagmire is stiffest.
  1. This grove to thee devote I give, Priapus!
  2. Who home be Lampsacus and holt, Priapus!