Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Yet no sooner is lost her bloom from body polluted,
  2. Neither to youths she is joy, nor a dearling she to the maidens.
  3. Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!
Youths
  1. E'en as an unmated vine which born in field of the barest
  2. Never upraises head nor breeds the mellowy grape-bunch,
  3. But under weight prone-bowed that tender body a-bending
  4. Makes she her root anon to touch her topmost of tendrils;
  5. Tends her never a hind nor tends her ever a herdsman:
  6. Yet if haply conjoined the same with elm as a husband,
  7. Tends her many a hind and tends her many a herdsman:
  8. Thus is the maid when whole, uncultured waxes she aged;
  9. But whenas union meet she wins her at ripest of seasons,
  10. More to her spouse she is dear and less she's irk to her parents.
  11. Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!
Youths and Damsels
  1. But do thou cease to resist (O Maid!) such bridegroom opposing,
  2. Right it is not to resist whereto consigned thee a father,
  3. Father and mother of thee unto whom obedience is owing.
  4. Not is that maidenhood all thine own, but partly thy parents!
  5. Owneth thy sire one third, one third is right of thy mother,
  6. Only the third is thine: stint thee to strive with the others,