Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Never the humble vine is purged by curve of the rake-tooth,
  2. Never a pruner's hook thins out the shade of the tree-tufts,
  3. Never a bull up-plows broad glebe with bend of the coulter,
  4. Over whose point unuse displays the squalor of rust-stain.
  5. But in the homestead's heart, where'er that opulent palace
  6. Hides a retreat, all shines with splendour of gold and of silver.
  7. Ivory blanches the seats, bright gleam the flagons a-table,
  8. All of the mansion joys in royal riches and grandeur.
  9. But for the Diva's use bestrewn is the genial bedstead,
  10. Hidden in midmost stead, and its polisht framework of Indian
  11. Tusk underlies its cloth empurpled by juice of the dye-shell.