Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Holds thee, an alien earth-buried in uttermost bourne.
  2. Thither in haste so hot ('tis said) from allwhere the Youth-hood
  3. Grecian, farèd in hosts forth of their hearths and their homes,
  4. Lest with a stolen punk with fullest of pleasure should Paris
  5. Fairly at leisure and ease sleep in the pacific bed.
  6. Such was the hapless chance, most beautiful Laodamia,
  7. Tare fro' thee dearer than life, dearer than spirit itself,
  8. Him, that husband, whose love in so mighty a whirlpool of passion
  9. Whelmed thee absorbed and plunged deep in its gulfy abyss,
  10. E'en as the Grecians tell hard by Phenéus of Cylléne
  11. Drained was the marish and dried, forming the fattest of soils,
  12. Whenas in days long done to delve through marrow of mountains
  13. Daréd, falsing his sire, Amphtryóniades;