Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Whenas from out those roseate lips these accents rapid flew,
  2. Bore them to ears divine consigned a Nuncio true and new;
  3. Then Cybele her lions twain disjoining from their yoke
  4. The left-hand enemy of the herds a-goading thus bespoke:
  5. "Up feral fell! up, hie with him, see rage his foot-steps urge,
  6. See that his fury smite him till he seek the forest verge,
  7. He who with over-freedom fain would fly mine empery.
  8. Go, slash thy flank with lashing tail and sense the strokes of thee,
  9. Make the whole mountain to thy roar sound and resound again,
  10. And fiercely toss thy brawny neck that bears the tawny mane!"
  11. So quoth an angered Cybele, and yoke with hand untied:
  12. The feral rose in fiery wrath and self-inciting hied,
  13. A-charging, roaring through the brake with breaking paws he tore.
  14. But when he reached the humid sands where surges cream the shore,
  15. Spying soft Atys lingering near the marbled pave of sea
  16. He springs: the terror-madded wretch back to the wood doth flee,
  17. Where for the remnant of her days a bondmaid's life led she.
  18. Great Goddess, Goddess Cybele, Dindymus dame divine,
  19. Far from my house and home thy wrath and wrack, dread mistress mine:
  20. Goad others on with Fury's goad, others to Ire consign!