Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Then as the she-he sensed limbs were void of manly strain
  2. And sighted freshly shed a-ground spot of ensanguined stain,
  3. Snatched she the timbrel's legier load with hands as snowdrops white,
  4. Thy timbrel, Mother Cybele, the firstings of thy rite,
  5. And as her tender finger-tips on bull-back hollow rang
  6. She rose a-grieving and her song to listening comrades sang.
  7. "Up Gallae, hie together, haste for Cybele's deep grove,
  8. Hie to the Dindymnean dame, ye flocks that love to rove;
  9. The which affecting stranger steads as bound in exile's brunt
  10. My sect pursuing led by me have nerved you to confront
  11. The raging surge of salty sea and ocean's tyrant hand
  12. As your hate of Venus' hest your manly forms unmann'd,
  13. Gladden your souls, ye mistresses, with sense of error bann'd.
  14. Drive from your spirits dull delay, together follow ye
  15. To hold of Phrygian goddess, home of Phrygian Cybebe,
  16. Where loud the cymbal's voice resounds with timbrel-echoes blending,
  17. And where the Phrygian piper drones grave bass from reed a-bending,
  18. Where toss their ivy-circled heads with might the Maenades
  19. Where ply mid shrilly lullilooes the holiest mysteries,