Carmina

Catullus

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

  • 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,