Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Or Aemilius' mouth choose I to smell or his . . . .
  2. Nothing is this more clean, uncleaner nothing that other,
  3. Yet I ajudge . . . . cleaner and nicer to be;
  4. For while this one lacks teeth, that one has cubit-long tushes,
  5. Set in their battered gums favouring a muddy old box,
  6. Not to say aught of gape like wide-cleft gap of a she-mule
  7. Whenas in summer-heat wont peradventure to stale.
  8. Yet has he many a motte and holds himself to be handsome—
  9. Why wi' the baker's ass is he not bound to the mill?
  10. Him if a damsel kiss we fain must think she be ready
  11. With her fair lips . . . .