Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Thither in haste so hot ('tis said) from allwhere the Youth-hood
  2. Grecian, farèd in hosts forth of their hearths and their homes,
  3. Lest with a stolen punk with fullest of pleasure should Paris
  4. Fairly at leisure and ease sleep in the pacific bed.
  5. Such was the hapless chance, most beautiful Laodamia,
  6. Tare fro' thee dearer than life, dearer than spirit itself,
  7. Him, that husband, whose love in so mighty a whirlpool of passion
  8. Whelmed thee absorbed and plunged deep in its gulfy abyss,
  9. E'en as the Grecians tell hard by Phenéus of Cylléne
  10. Drained was the marish and dried, forming the fattest of soils,
  11. Whenas in days long done to delve through marrow of mountains
  12. Daréd, falsing his sire, Amphtryóniades;
  13. What time sure of his shafts he smote Stymphalian monsters
  14. Slaying their host at the hest dealt by a lord of less worth,
  15. So might the gateway of Heaven be trodden by more of the godheads,
  16. Nor might Hébé abide longer to maidenhood doomed.
  17. Yet was the depth of thy love far deeper than deepest of marish
  18. Which the hard mistress's yoke taught him so tamely to bear;
  19. Never was head so dear to a grandsire wasted by life-tide
  20. Whenas one daughter alone a grandson so tardy had reared,
  21. Who being found against hope to inherit riches of forbears
  22. In the well-witnessed Will haply by name did appear,
  23. And 'spite impious hopes of baffled claimant to kinship
  24. Startles the Vulturine grip clutching the frost-bitten poll.
  25. Nor with such rapture e'er joyed his mate of snowy-hued plumage
  26. Dove-mate, albeit aye wont in her immoderate heat
  27. Said be the bird to snatch hot kisses with beak ever billing,
  28. As diddest thou :—yet is Woman multivolent still.
  29. But thou 'vailedest alone all these to conquer in love-lowe,
  30. When conjoindd once more unto thy yellow-haired spouse.
  31. Worthy of yielding to her in naught or ever so little