Catullus

“ Who can witness this, who can tolerate it,
unless a shameless and voracious and insatiable gambler,
that Mamurra has that which hairy Gaul
and farthest Britain had before?
Catamite Romulus, will you see and bear these things?
And that man now, arrogant and overflowing,
will make rounds of everyone's bed,
like a white cock-pigeon or an Adonis?
Catamite Romulus, will you see and bear these things?
You are a shameless and voracious and insatiable gambler. ”

“ I loved you not so much as the common man does his girlfriend,
but as a father loves his children and sons-in-law.
Now I have known you: therefore, though I am burnt more fiercely,
you are cheaper and of less meaning to me.
How is this so, you ask? Because such an injury drives a lover
to love more often, but to be less friendly. ”

“ But in such sorrows, O Hortalus, nevertheless I
send you these translated poems of Callimachus,
lest you think that your words, entrusted in vain,
have slipped perhaps from my mind to vagrant winds,
as an apple sent by a fiancé's secret tribute,
runs out from the maiden's chaste lap
because placed under the poor forgetful girl's soft robe,
when she jumps with her mother's arrival, it's cast out,
and in a prone hurry, headlong drives that thing
guilty blush springs from this sad one. ”

“ Wherefore Eumenides, punishing the deeds of men with vengeful
penalty, for whom a forehead crowned with snaky hair
brings forth angers of the exhaling chest,
Here, here, come, listen to my complaints,
Which I, woe to unhappy (me) , impoverished, am compelled to
bring forth from the last marrows, raging, blind with insane fury.
Which since they are born true from the deepest chest,
You! Do not suffer our grief to vanish,
But with like what mind Theseus left me alone
With such a mind, goddesses, let he pollute with death himself and his own. ”

“ That I may rescue one shipwrecked, expelled by the frothing waves
of the sea, and bring him back in health from the threshold of
death, him whom heavenly Venus provides no relief, alone in a
celibate bed, in languid sleep,
nor Muses delight with sweet song of ancient writers
when your mind stays anxiously awake all night,
pleases me because you tell me I'm your friend
and seek the gifts both of the Muses and of Venus. ”

“ Then Peleus was taken with love of Thetis,
Then Thetis did not despise human marriages
Then the father himself realized Peleus must be joined to Thetis.
Oh heroes born in the more joyful of ages,
Greeting, race of gods! Oh good progeny of the mothers
Often I will address you in my song,
And you so increased in importance by fortunate wedding torches
Oh Peleus height of Thessaly, to whom Jupiter himself,
The father of the gods himself concedes the his own love?
Did Thetis, most beautiful daughter of Nereus hold you? ”

“ I arrive, brother, at these miserable funeral rites,
So that I might bestow you with the final gift of death
And might speak in vain to the silent ash.
Since Fortune has stolen you yourself from me,
Alas, wretched brother, unfairly stolen from me,
Meanwhile, however, receive these which in the ancient custom of [our] parents
were handed down as a sad gift for funeral rites,
dripping much with fraternal weeping,
And forever, brother, hail and farewell. ”

“ In truth, I am afraid of you and your penis,
hostile to boys, both good and bad.
Because you let it go where it pleases, as it pleases,
as much as you wish. When it is out, you are ready.
This one boy I ask humbly, I feel, you exclude.
For if foul thought and senseless passion drives
you, wretch, to such a crime
that you plan in your mind treason against me,
Then you will have a miserable and ill fate.
Because with feet tied together you will be run
through your backdoor with radishes and mullets. ”

“ Attis accompanied by the drum, leader through the shaded forests.
Just like an untamed young cow trying to escape the burden of the yoke
the fast Gallae follow the swift of foot leader.
So as they, tired, the home of Cybele reached,
from the excessive exertion they catch sleep without Ceres.
Lazy slumber covers them the eyes with wavering drowsiness;
the rabid fury of the soul disappears in soft rest. ”

“ Great gods, make it that she is able to promise truly,
And that she speaks sincerely and from her heart,
That we might be allowed to lead through
Our whole life this eternal pact of holy friendship. ”

“ Blazing suns once shone for you
when you would always come where the girl led,
a girl beloved by us as no girl will be loved.
There when those many playful things happened,
things which you wanted, nor was the girl unwilling,
truly, blazing suns shone for you.
Now, now she is not willing; you, powerless, must not want:
do not follow one who flees, do not live miserably,
but endure with a resolute mind, harden yourself.
Farewell, girl! Already Catullus is firm,
he will not seek you out, nor will he ask one who is unwilling. ”

“ Was no thing able to turn the decision of the cruel
mind? Was there no clemency to you at hand,
Cruel one, so that the chest wishes to show compassion to us?
But you did not give these promises once to me with a soothing
voice, you were not ordering (me) miserable to hope for these things
but a happy marriage, but weddings having been wished for,
which all the airy winds tear to pieces.
Now now let now woman believe in a man pledging,
let not anyone hope the speakings of man to be faithful ”

“ Because my girl, who fled my lap,
having been loved as much as no other will ever be loved,
for whom by me great wars were fought,
sits together with them in that place.
This one you fine and well-to-do fellows,
all of you, love, and – which is undeserved indeed –
all small-time thugs and alleyway adulterers;
Above all others, you, one of the long-haireds,
son of your bunny-filled borderlands,
Egnatius, whom a dark beard
and teeth scoured with Spanish piss make a fine gent. ”

“ Surely a lioness from the Libystinian mountains
or barking Scylla didn't beget you from the lowest part of her loins,
with such a harsh and ugly mind,
that you hold in contempt the voice of a supplicant in last and final crisis,
oh, from a too savage heart? ”

“ Yesterday, Licinius, at leisure
we played much on my tablets,
as it was agreed that [we] would be self-indulgent:
each of us writing our lines of poetry
was playing, now in this meter, now in that one,
delivering lines in turn while laughing and [drinking] wine.
And I left from there [so] inflamed
by your charm and wit, Licinius,
that neither did food placate poor me
nor did sleep shut my little eyes in peace,
but rather I tossed about on the whole couch
from uncontrollable spasms, wishing to see the light,
so that I could speak with you and at the same time be with you. ”

“ I stole from you, while you were playing, honey-sweet Iuventius,
a kiss more sweet than sweet ambrosia.
Truly I did not lift this unpunished: for such a long hour
I remember that I was crucified on the highest cross,
while I purged myself to you, nor was I able to remove
with any tears so small a quantity of your ferocity. ”

“ Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
and let us value all the rumors of
more severe old men at only a penny!
Suns are able to set and return:
when once the short light has set
one perpetual night must be slept by us. ”

“ O my farm, whether Sabine or Tiburtine
(for they say that you're Tiburtine, they for whom it is not pleasing
to harm Catullus; but they for whom it is pleasing
assert that you are Sabine by any wager) ,
but whether Sabine or more truly Tiburtine,
I was gladly in your suburban villa
and I expelled a bad cough from my chest,
which my stomach gave to me, not undeserving,
while I seek a lavish dinner:
for, while I wish to be a Sestian guest,
I read the speech “Against the Candidate
Antius”, full of poison and pestilence. ”

“ For this reason, Gellius, I was hoping that you would be faithful to me
in this miserable, this destroyed love of ours,
not because I had known you well nor I was thinking you dependable
nor to be able to restrain your mind from ugly scandalous conduct ”

“ But when the golden-faced sun with radiant eyes
surveyed the white heavens, the hard earth, the wild sea
and drove the shadows of the night away with lively steeds,
then running Sleep quickly left the wakened Attis;
the goddess Pasithea received him in her trembling bosom. ”

“ What bad mind, wretched little Ravidus,
drives you headfirst into my iambs?
What god summoned not well
prepares to rouse a demented fight?
Or to arrive into the mouths of the crowd?
What do you want? By any means do you wish to be known? ”

“ All which having slipped from the whole body here and there
the waves of salt were playing with before the feet of she herself.
But she caring for the plight neither then of the of the headdress
nor then of the floating cloak, she having been destroyed, was
depending on you Theseus out of her whole chest, whole spirit, whole mind.
Wretched one, whom the Erycinian maddened with constant griefs
sowing thorny cares in the chest,
in that age, out of which time bold Theseus
having set forth from the curved shores of Piraeus
touched the Gortynian temples of an unjust king. ”

“ No man tills his field, the necks of cattle grow soft,
The low vine is not cleansed by curved hoe,
The bull does not heave up turf with leaning-forward ploughshare,
The scythe of the pruners does not diminish the shade of the tree,
Dirty rust is spread on deserted plows.
But the home of (Peleus) himself, as far back as royal opulence went back,
They shone with gleaming gold and silver.
The ivory of the chairs gleamed white, the cups of the table shine,
The whole house rejoices with glittering royal treasure.
The pulvinar of the goddess was placed in the middle of the palace ”

“ I'd prefer you give the wealth of Midas
to that man for whom there is neither a slave nor a coffer,
than that you suffer yourself to be loved by him.
"Why?" you ask "Is he not a good man?" He is;
but there is neither a slave nor a coffer to this fine man. ”

“ O servant boy of old Falernian wine,
pour pungent cups for me,
as orders the law of the mistress Postumia,
drunker than a drunken grape.
But go as far away from here as you please, waters,
bane of wine, and to the sober ones
migrate; here Bacchus (the wine) is pure. ”

“ When he is dead, may he become more and more famous, and may no
spider do her work, weaving a thin web high upon Allius'
lonely name! You know what concern two-faced Venus has given
me, and in what manner she has parched me, for I've been
burning like Etna's Sicilian crag or the waters of Malis in
the hot gates of Mount Oeta, and my hapless eyes have not
stopped wasting away in unremitting tears, and my cheeks
have not stopped being wet with the gloomy tears of rain. ”

“ May the gods grant many evils to that client of yours,
who sent you so great a group of scoundrels.
Because, if as I suspect, Sulla the teacher
gives you this newfound gift,
it is not bad for me, but well and happy,
because your works have not perished. ”

“ Her husband did not touch her before,
he whose little dagger hung weaker than a soft beet,
and never raised itself to the middle of his tunic;
but his father is said to have violated the bed of that son,
and dishonored his wretched home,
either because his impious mind burned with a blind love,
or because his son was infertile with barren seed,
so something more vigorous had to be sought elsewhere,
which could loosen her virgin belt."
You tell of an outstanding parent with amazing dutifulness,
who himself has pissed in his own son's lap! ”

“ Called to his duty,
Will he bear here his presence,
Lord of honorable love,
Uniter of true lovers.
What god is worthier
To be sought by anxious lovers?
Whom of the celestials do men worship more greatly? ”

“ She promised, if I were reconciled to her
and I stopped brandishing savage iambs,
that she would give the most select writings
of the worst poet to the lame-footed god
to be burned with unlucky firewood.
And in this way she saw that the worst girl
Wished humorously and charmingly to the gods.
Now, you who were born from the blue sea,
who dwell in the sacred Idalium and open Urium,
and in Ancona and reedy Cnidus,
and in Amathus and in Golgi,
and in Dyrrachium, shop of the Adriatic,
record this vow to have been accepted and returned,
if it is not uncharming and unwitty. ”

“ If anything pleasing or acceptable to silent sepulchers
is able to be done by our grief, Calvus,
by this longing we renew old loves
and we lament sent away friendships.
Certainly a premature death is not of such sadness
to Quintilia, so much as she rejoices in your love. ”

“ If there is any pleasure in remembering past good deeds
for a man, when he believes that he is dutiful,
nor he has violated any sacred trust, nor in any pact
of the gods to have abused divine power to deceive men,
then many joys remain for you in your long life, Catullus,
prepared from this thankless love.
For anything that a man is able to do or to say well to another
these have been done and said by you. ”

“ Thynia and Bithynian fields and that I see you in safety.
O what is happier than worries released,
when the mind sets aside its burden, and we
having been exhausted from foreign labor, have come to our home,
and we rest in our longed for bed? ”

“ Lesbia says to me many bad [things] in the presence of a man:
that this person is the greatest joy for a fool.
Mule of a man, you understand nothing? If she were to forget me and were silent,
she would be sane: but now she snarls and interrupts me,
not only does she remember, but a thing, which is much more serious,
she is angry. That is, she burns and speaks. ”

“ You restore yourself to desirous, unexpecting me, you return yourself
to me. O, light of a fairer mark!
Who lives more happily than I alone, or who will be able
to say that these things are to be hoped for more than this life? ”

“ You fill up the rural hut
Of the farmer with good crops.
By whatever name pleases you
May you be hallowed,
And as you have been accustomed to before, may you
Preserve the offspring of Romulus with good aid. ”

“ But my tongue is stiff, a delicate flame runs
under my limbs, my ears ring
with their own sound, my twin eyes are covered
with darkness.
Leisure, Catullus, is trouble for you:
In leisure you become overjoyed and too passionate:
Leisure has destroyed kings before
And blessed cities. ”

“ For (Ariadne) looking out from the wave-resounding shore of Dia,
she (Ariadne) sees Theseus withdrawing with the fast fleet,
Ariadne (who is) bearing uncontrollable furies in (her) heart
And not even yet does she believe that she sees what she sees,
Naturally since she who was at that point first roused from deceitful sleep
perceives that she herself was unhappy, deserted on a lonely beach.
But the unmindful youth fleeing strikes the shallows with oars,
leaving behind empty promises to the windy storm. ”

“ Oh gods, if it is yours to feel pity, or if ever
you have saved someone in the nick of time in death itself
Look upon pathetic me! And, if I have lived life purely,
take away this pestilence and ruin from me,
which creeping down to my inner most self like a paralysis
takes away happiness from my whole heart. ”

“ Oh most eloquent of the descendants of Romulus,
however many there are and have been, Marcus Tullius,
and as many as there will be later in other years,
Catullus, the worst poet of them all,
shows his highest appreciation,
[he who is] just as much the worst poet of them all,
as you are the greatest patron of them all. ”

“ Laugh, as much as you love Catullus, Cato.
The thing is too absurd and funny.
I just found a young boy having sex with a girl:
May it please Diona, I attacked him
with my rigid thing, using it as a spear. ”

“ My sweetheart, compared to Laodamia, is then worthy
to concede little or nothing to my lap; blond Cupid has
often gleamed in a saffron yellow tunic, running here and
there around her. Although she nevertheless is not satisfied
with one Catullus, we bear the infrequent and furtive trysts
of a chaste mistress, lest we be annoying, in the manner of
fools. Even Juno, the greatest of the goddesses, often
stomachs her burning anger at her husband's wrongdoing,
knowing of more trysts of all-desiring Jupiter. But it isn't
just to compare people to gods... ”

“ He's unwell, O Cornificius, your Catullus,
he's unwell, by Hercules, and unbearably so,
and moreso and moreso each day and each hour.
And (which is the least and simplest thing)
with what words have you consoled him?
I'm mad at you. [You repay] my affections like this? ”