Carmina

Catullus

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

  • O Hymen Hymemeus io,
  • O Hymen Hymenaeus.
  • Let fall the maid's soft arms, thou fair
  • Boy purple-hem'd: now be thy care
  • Her bridegroom's couch she seek and share.
  • O Hymen Hymenaeus io,
  • 0 Hymen Hymenaeus.
  • Ye wives time-tried to husbands wed,
  • Well-known for chastity inbred,
  • Dispose the virginette a-bed.
  • O Hymen Hymenaeus io,
  • 0 Hymen Hymenaeus.
  • Groom, now 'tis meet thou hither pace,
  • With bride in genial bed to blend,
  • For sheenly shines her flowery face
  • Where the white chamomiles contend
  • With poppies blushing red.
  • Yet bridegroom (So may Godhead deign
  • Help me!) nowise in humbler way
  • Art fair, nor Venus shall disdain
  • Thy charms, but look! how wanes the day:
  • Forward, nor loiter more!
  • No longer loitering makest thou,
  • Now comest thou. May Venus good
  • Aid thee when frankly takest thou
  • Thy wishes won, nor true Love woo'd
  • Thou carest to conceal.
  • Of Afric's wolds and wilds each grain,
  • Or constellations glistening,
  • First reckon he that of the twain
  • To count alone were fain to bring
  • The many thousand joys.
  • Play as ye please: soon prove ye deft
  • At babying babes,—'twere ill design'd
  • A name thus ancient should be left
  • Heirless, but issue like of kind
  • Engendered aye should be.
  • A wee Torquaitus fain I'd see
  • Encradled on his mother's breast
  • Put forth his tender puds while he
  • Smiles to his sire with sweetest gest
  • And liplets half apart.
  • Let son like father's semblance show
  • (Manlius!) so with easy guess
  • All know him where his sire they know,
  • And still his face and form express
  • His mother's honest love.
  • Approve shall fair approof his birth
  • From mother's seed-stock generous,
  • As rarest fame of mother's worth
  • Unique exalts Telemachus
  • Penelope's own son.
  • Fast close the door-leaves, virgin band:
  • Enow we've played. But ye the fair
  • New-wedded twain live happy, and
  • Functions of lusty married pair
  • Exercise sans surcease.

    • Youths
    1. Vesper is here, O youths, rise all; for Vesper Olympus
    2. Scales and in fine enfires what lights so long were expected!
    3. Time 'tis now to arise, now leave we tables rich laden,
    4. Now shall the Virgin come; now chaunt we the Hymenaeus.
    5. Hymen O Hymenaeus: Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!
    Damsels
    1. View ye the Youths, O Maids unwed? Then rise to withstand them:
    2. Doubtless the night-fraught Star displays his splendour Oetean.
    3. Sooth 'tis so; d'ye sight how Speedily sprang they to warfare?
    4. Nor for a naught up-sprang: they'll Sing what need we to conquer.