Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. We rang the changes amid wit and wine.
  2. Then fared I homewards by thy fun so fired
  3. And by thy jests (Licinius!) so inspired,
  4. Nor food my hapless appetite availed
  5. Nor sleep in quiet rest my eyelids veiled,
  6. But o'er the bedstead wild in furious plight
  7. I tossed a-longing to behold the light,
  8. So I might talk wi' thee, and be wi' thee.
  9. But when these wearied limbs from labour free
  10. Were on my couchlet strewn half-dead to lie,
  11. For thee (sweet wag!) this poem for thee wrote I,
  12. Whereby thou mete and weet my cark and care.
  13. Now be not over-bold, nor this our prayer
  14. Outspit thou (apple of mine eyes !): we pray
  15. Lest doom thee Nemesis hard pain repay :—
  16. She's a dire Goddess, 'ware thou cross her way.
  1. Peer of a God meseemeth he,
  2. Nay passing Gods (and that can be!)
  3. Who all the while sits facing thee
  4. Sees thee and hears