Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. And noble Rhodos and ferocious Thrace,
  2. Propontis too and blustering Pontic bight.
  3. Where she (my Pinnace now) in times before,
  4. Was leafy woodling on Cytórean Chine
  5. For ever loquent lisping with her leaves.
  6. Pontic Amastris! Box-tree-clad Cytórus!
  7. Cognisant were ye, and you weet full well
  8. (So saith my Pinnace) how from earliest age
  9. Upon your highmost-spiring peak she stood,
  10. How in your waters first her sculls were dipt,
  11. And thence thro' many and many an important strait
  12. She bore her owner whether left or right,
  13. Where breezes bade her fare, or Jupiter deigned
  14. At once propitious strike the sail full square;
  15. Nor to the sea-shore gods was aught of vow
  16. By her deemed needful, when from Ocean's bourne
  17. Extreme she voyaged for this limpid lake.
  18. Yet were such things whilome: now she retired
  19. In quiet age devotes herself to thee
  20. (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,