Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Our noting books (O rotten whore!) return!"
  2. No doit thou car'st? O Mire! O Stuff O' stews!
  3. Or if aught fouler filthier dirt there be.
  4. Yet must we never think these words suffice.
  5. But if naught else avail, at least a blush
  6. Forth of that bitch-like brazen brow we'll squeeze.
  7. Cry all together in a higher key
  8. "Restore (O rotten whore!) our noting books,
  9. Our noting books (O rotten whore!) restore !"
  10. Still naught avails us, nothing is she moved.
  11. Now must our measures and our modes be changed
  12. An we would anywise our cause advance.
  13. "Restore (chaste, honest Maid!) our noting books!"
  1. Hail, girl who neither nose of minim size
  2. Owns, nor a pretty foot, nor jetty eyes,
  3. Nor thin long fingers, nor mouth dry of slaver
  4. Nor yet too graceful tongue of pleasant flavour,
  5. Leman to Formian that rake-a-hell.
  6. What, can the Province boast of thee as belle?
  7. Thee with my Lesbia durst it make compare?
  8. O Age insipid, of all humour bare!
  1. O Farm our own, Sabine or Tiburtine,
  2. (For style thee "Tiburs" Who have not at heart
  3. To hurt Catullus, whereas all that have
  4. Wage any Wager thou be Sabine classed)
  5. But whether Sabine or of Tiburs truer
  6. To thy suburban Cottage fared I fain
  7. And fro' my bronchials drave that cursèd cough
  8. Which not unmerited on me my maw,
  9. A-seeking sumptuous banquetings, bestowed.
  10. For I requesting to be Sestius' guest
  11. Read against claimant Antius a speech,
  12. Full-filled with poisonous pestilential trash.
  13. Hence a grave frigid rheum and frequent cough
  14. Shook me till fled I to thy bosom, where
  15. Repose and nettle-broth healed all my ills.
  16. Wherefore recruited now best thanks I give
  17. To thee for nowise punishing my sins:
  18. Nor do I now object if noisome writs
  19. Of Sestius hear I, but that cold and cough
  20. And rheum may plague, not me, but Sestius' self
  21. Who asks me only his ill writs to read.
  1. To Acmé quoth Septumius who his fere
  2. Held on his bosom-" Acme', mine! next year,
  3. Unless I love thee fondlier than before,