Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Nine-fold continuous love-delights.
  2. But aught do thou to hurry things,
  3. For dinner-full I lie aback,
  4. And gown and tunic through I crack.
  1. OH, best of robbers who in Baths delight,
  2. Vibennius, sire and son, the Ingle hight,
  3. (For that the father's hand be fouler one
  4. And with his anus greedier is the Son)
  5. Why not to banishment and evil hours
  6. Haste ye, when all the parent's plundering powers
  7. Are public knowledge, nor canst gain a Cent
  8. Son! by the vending of thy pilèd vent.
  1. Diana's faith inbred we bear
  2. Youths whole of heart and maidens fair,
  3. Let boys no blemishes impair,
  4. And girls of Dian sing!
  5. O great Latonian progeny,
  6. Of greatest Jove descendancy,
  7. Whom mother bare 'neath olive-tree,
  8. Deep in the Delian dell;
  9. That of the mountains reign thou Queen
  10. And forest ranges ever green,
  11. And coppices by man unseen,
  12. And rivers resonant.
  13. Thou art Lucína, Juno hight
  14. By mothers lien in painful plight,
  15. Thou puissant Trivia and the Light
  16. Bastard, yclept the Lune.
  17. Thou goddess with thy monthly stage,
  18. The yearly march doth mete and guage
  19. An d rustic peasant's messuage,
  20. Dost brim with best o' crops,
  21. Be hailed by whatso name of grace,
  22. Please thee and olden Romulus' race,
  23. Thy wonted favour deign embrace,
  24. And save with choicest aid.