Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Tare fro' thee dearer than life, dearer than spirit itself,
  2. Him, that husband, whose love in so mighty a whirlpool of passion
  3. Whelmed thee absorbed and plunged deep in its gulfy abyss,
  4. E'en as the Grecians tell hard by Phenéus of Cylléne
  5. Drained was the marish and dried, forming the fattest of soils,
  6. Whenas in days long done to delve through marrow of mountains
  7. Daréd, falsing his sire, Amphtryóniades;
  8. What time sure of his shafts he smote Stymphalian monsters
  9. Slaying their host at the hest dealt by a lord of less worth,
  10. So might the gateway of Heaven be trodden by more of the godheads,