Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Was leafy woodling on Cytórean Chine
  2. For ever loquent lisping with her leaves.
  3. Pontic Amastris! Box-tree-clad Cytórus!
  4. Cognisant were ye, and you weet full well
  5. (So saith my Pinnace) how from earliest age
  6. Upon your highmost-spiring peak she stood,
  7. How in your waters first her sculls were dipt,
  8. And thence thro' many and many an important strait
  9. She bore her owner whether left or right,
  10. Where breezes bade her fare, or Jupiter deigned
  11. At once propitious strike the sail full square;
  12. Nor to the sea-shore gods was aught of vow
  13. By her deemed needful, when from Ocean's bourne
  14. Extreme she voyaged for this limpid lake.
  15. Yet were such things whilome: now she retired
  16. In quiet age devotes herself to thee
  17. (0 twin-born Castor) twain with Castor's twin.
  1. Love we (my Lesbia!) and live we our day,
  2. While all stern sayings crabbed sages say,
  3. At one doit's value let us price and prize!
  4. The Suns can westward sink again to rise
  5. But we, extinguished once our tiny light,
  6. Perforce shall slumber through one lasting night!
  7. Kiss me a thousand times, then hundred more,
  8. Then thousand others, then a new five-score,