Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. With turgid eyelids tinted rose by tears.
  1. Yonder Pinnace ye (my guests!) behold
  2. Saith she was erstwhile fleetest-fleet of crafts,
  3. Nor could by swiftness of aught plank that swims,
  4. Be she outstripped, whether paddle plied,
  5. Or fared she scudding under canvas-sail.
  6. Eke she defieth threat'ning Adrian shore,
  7. Dare not denay her, insular Cyclades,
  8. And noble Rhodos and ferocious Thrace,
  9. Propontis too and blustering Pontic bight.
  10. Where she (my Pinnace now) in times before,
  11. Was leafy woodling on Cytórean Chine
  12. For ever loquent lisping with her leaves.
  13. Pontic Amastris! Box-tree-clad Cytórus!
  14. Cognisant were ye, and you weet full well
  15. (So saith my Pinnace) how from earliest age
  16. Upon your highmost-spiring peak she stood,
  17. How in your waters first her sculls were dipt,
  18. And thence thro' many and many an important strait
  19. She bore her owner whether left or right,