Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Can I console my soul with the helpful love of a helpmate
  2. Who flies me with pliant oars, flies overbounding the sea-depths?
  3. Nay, if this Coast I quit, this lone isle lends me no roof-tree,
  4. Nor aught issue allows begirt by billows of Ocean:
  5. Nowhere is path for flight: none hope shows: all things are silent:
  6. All be a desolate waste: all makes display of destruction.
  7. Yet never close these eyes in latest languor of dying,
  8. Ne'er from my wearied frame go forth slow-ebbing my senses,
  9. Ere from the Gods just doom implore I, treason-betrayed,
  10. And with my breath supreme firm faith of Celestials invoke I.
  11. Therefore, O you who 'venge man's deed with penalties direful,