Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. That is or ever was (Marc Tullius!)
  2. Or in the coming years the light shall see,
  3. His thanks, the warmest, offers unto thee
  4. Catullus, poet sorriest that be,
  5. And by such measure poet sorriest,
  6. As thou of pleaders art the bestest best.
  1. Idly (Licinius!) we our yesterday,
  2. Played with my tablets much as pleased us play,
  3. In mode becoming souls of dainty strain.
  4. Inditing verses either of us twain
  5. Now in one measure then in other line
  6. We rang the changes amid wit and wine.
  7. Then fared I homewards by thy fun so fired
  8. And by thy jests (Licinius!) so inspired,