Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. How Diana to lurk thief-like 'neath Latmian stone-fields,
  2. Summoned by sweetness of Love, comes from her aëry gyre;
  3. That same Cónon espied among lights Celestial shining
  4. Me, Berenice's Hair, which, from her glorious head,
  5. Fulgent in brightness afar, to many a host of the Godheads
  6. Stretching her soft smooth arms she vowed to devoutly bestow,
  7. What time strengthened by joy of new-made wedlock the monarch
  8. Bounds of Assyrian land hurried to plunder and pill;
  9. Bearing of nightly strife new signs and traces delicious,
  10. Won in the war he waged virginal trophies to win.
  11. Loathsome is Venus to all new-paired? Else why be the parents'
  12. Pleasure frustrated aye by the false flow of tears
  13. Poured in profusion amid illuminate genial chamber?
  14. Nay not real the 'groans; ever so help me the Gods!