Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Sweeping the deep blue seas with sweeps a-carven of fir-wood.
  2. She, that governing Goddess of citadels crowning the cities,
  3. Builded herself their car fast-flitting with lightest of breezes,
  4. Weaving plants of the pine conjoined in curve of the kelson;
  5. Foremost of all to imbue rude Amphitrite with ship-lore.
  6. Soon as her beak had burst through wind-rackt spaces of ocean,
  7. While the oar-tortured wave with spumy whiteness was blanching,
  8. Surged from the deep abyss and hoar-capped billows the faces
  9. Seaborn, Nereids eyeing the prodigy wonder-smitten.
  10. There too mortal orbs through softened spendours regarded
  11. Ocean-nymphs who exposed bodies denuded of raiment