Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. So shall our mourning thought and burning torture of spirit
  2. Show by the dark sombre-dye of Iberian canvas spread.
  3. But, grant me the grace Who dwells in Sacred Itone,
  4. (And our issue to guard and ward the seats of Erechtheus
  5. Sware She) that if your right is besprent with blood of the Man-Bull,
  6. Then do you so-wise act, and stored in memory's heart-core
  7. Dwell these mandates of me, no time their traces untracing.
  8. Dip, when first shall arise our hills to gladden your eye-glance,
  9. Down from your every mast the ill-omened vestments of mourning,
  10. Then let the twisten ropes upheave the whitest of canvas,
  11. Wherewith splendid shall gleam the tallest spars of the top-mast,