Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Mamurra and Caesar, both of pathic fame.
  2. No wonder! Both are fouled with foulest blight,
  3. One urban being, Formian t'other wight,
  4. And deeply printed with indelible stain:
  5. Morbose is either, and the twin-like twain
  6. Share single Couchlet; peers in shallow lore,
  7. Nor this nor that for lechery hungers more,
  8. As rival wenchers who the maidens claim
  9. Right well are paired these Cinaedes sans shame.
  1. Caelius! That Lesbia of ours, that Lesbia,
  2. That only Lesbia by Catullus loved,
  3. Than self, far fondlier, than all his friends,
  4. She now Where four roads fork, and wind the wynds
  5. Husks the high-minded scions Remus-sprung.
  1. Not if I feigned me that guard of Crete,
  2. Not if with Pegasèan wing I sped,
  3. >Or Ladas I or Perseus plumiped,
  4. Or Rhesus borne in swifty car snow-white:
  5. Add the twain foot-bewing'd and fast of flight,
  6. And of the cursive' winds require the blow: