Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Now, let woman no more trust her to man when he sweareth,
  2. Ne'er let her hope to find or truth or faith in his pleadings,
  3. Who when lustful thought forelooks to somewhat attaining,
  4. Never an oath they fear, shall spare no promise to promise.
  5. Yet no sooner they sate all lewdness and lecherous fancy,
  6. Nothing remember of words and reck they naught of fore-swearing.
  7. Certes, you did I snatch from midmost whirlpool of ruin
  8. Deadly, and held it cheap loss of a brother to suffer
  9. Rather than fail your need (O false!) at hour the supremest.
  10. Therefore my limbs are doomed to be torn of birds, and of ferals
  11. Prey, nor shall upheapt Earth afford a grave to my body.
  12. Say me, what lioness bare you 'neath lone rock of the desert?
  13. What sea spued you conceived from out the spume of his surges!