Carmina
Catullus
Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.
- But o'er the bedstead wild in furious plight
- I tossed a-longing to behold the light,
- So I might talk wi' thee, and be wi' thee.
- But when these wearied limbs from labour free
- Were on my couchlet strewn half-dead to lie,
- For thee (sweet wag!) this poem for thee wrote I,
- Whereby thou mete and weet my cark and care.
- Now be not over-bold, nor this our prayer
- Outspit thou (apple of mine eyes !): we pray
- Lest doom thee Nemesis hard pain repay :—
- She's a dire Goddess, 'ware thou cross her way.
- Peer of a God meseemeth he,
- Nay passing Gods (and that can be!)
- Who all the while sits facing thee
- Sees thee and hears
- Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze
- Mine every sense, and as I gaze
- Upon thee (Lesbia!) o'er me strays
- ---
- My tongue is dulled, my limbs adown