Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Presents afore they bring, and joy in faces declare they.
  2. Cieros abides a desert: they quit Phthiotican Tempe,
  3. Homesteads of Crannon-town, eke bulwarkt walls Larissa;
  4. Meeting at Pharsalus, and roof Pharsalian seeking.
  5. None will the fields now till; soft wax all necks the oxen,
  6. Never the humble vine is purged by curve of the rake-tooth,
  7. Never a pruner's hook thins out the shade of the tree-tufts,
  8. Never a bull up-plows broad glebe with bend of the coulter,
  9. Over whose point unuse displays the squalor of rust-stain.
  10. But in the homestead's heart, where'er that opulent palace
  11. Hides a retreat, all shines with splendour of gold and of silver.
  12. Ivory blanches the seats, bright gleam the flagons a-table,
  13. All of the mansion joys in royal riches and grandeur.
  14. But for the Diva's use bestrewn is the genial bedstead,
  15. Hidden in midmost stead, and its polisht framework of Indian
  16. Tusk underlies its cloth empurpled by juice of the dye-shell.
  17. This be a figured cloth with forms of manhood primeval
  18. Showing by marvel-art the gifts and graces of heroes.
  19. Here upon Dia's strand wave-resonant, ever-regarding
  20. Theseus borne from sight outside by fleet of the fleetest,