Caius Valerius Catullus, The Carmina

To whom inscribe my dainty tome - just out and with ashen pumice polished? Cornelius, to thee! for thou wert wont to deem my triflings of account, and

ii.

Sparrow, petling of my girl, with which she wantons, which she presses to her bosom, and whose eager peckings is accustomed to incite by stretching fo

iii.

Mourn ye, O ye Loves and Cupids and all men of gracious mind. Dead is the sparrow of my girl, sparrow, sweetling of my girl. Which more than her eyes

iiii.

That pinnace which ye see, my friends, says that it was the speediest of boats, nor any craft the surface skimming but it could gain the lead, whether

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, and count all the mumblings of sour age at a penny's fee. Suns set can rise again: we when once our brief lig

vi.

O Flavius, of thy sweetheart to Catullus thou would'st speak, nor could'st thou keep silent, were she not both ill-mannered and ungraceful. In truth t

vii.

Thou askest, how many kisses of thine, Lesbia, may be enough and to spare for me. As the countless Libyan sands which strew the spicy strand of Cyrene

viii.

Unhappy Catullus, cease thy trifling and what thou seest lost know to be lost. Once bright days used to shine on thee when thou wert wont to haste whi

viiii.

Veranius, of all my friends standing in the front, owned I three hundred thousands of them, hast thou come home to thy Penates, thy longing brothers a

Varus drew me off to see his mistress as I was strolling from the Forum: a little whore, as it seemed to me at the first glance, neither inelegant nor

xi.

Furius and Aurelius, comrades of Catullus, whether he penetrate to furthest Ind where the strand is lashed by the far-echoing Eoan surge, or whether '

xii.

Marrucinius Asinius, thou dost use thy left hand in no fair fashion 'midst the jests and wine: thou dost filch away the napkins of the heedless. Dost

xiii.

Thou shalt feast well with me, my Fabullus, in a few days, if the gods favour thee, provided thou dost bear hither with thee a good and great feast, n

Did I not love thee more than mine eyes, O most jocund Calvus, for thy gift I should abhor thee with Vatinian abhorrence. For what have I done or what

xv.

I commend me to thee with my charmer, Aurelius. I come for modest boon that - didst thine heart long for aught, which thou desiredst chaste and untouc

xvi.

I will paedicate and irrumate you, Aurelius the bardache and Furius the cinaede, who judge me from my verses rich in love-liesse, to be their equal in

xvii.

O Colonia, that longest to disport thyself on a long bridge and art prepared for the dance, but that fearest the trembling legs of the bridgelet build

xviii.

This grove I dedicate and consecrate to thee, Priapus, who hast thy home at Lampsacus, and eke thy woodlands, Priapus for thee especially in its citi

xviiii.

This place, youths, and the marshland cot thatched with rushes, osier-twigs and bundles of sedge, I, carved from a dry oak by a rustic axe, now protec

xx.

I, O traveller, shaped with rustic art from a dry poplar, guard this little field which thou seest on the left, and the cottage and small garden of it

xxi.

Aurelius, father of the famished, in ages past in time now present and in future years yet to come, thou art longing to paedicate my love. Nor is't do

xxii.

That Suffenus, Varus, whom thou know'st right well, is a man fair spoken, witty and urbane, and one who makes of verses lengthy store. I think he has

xxiii.

O Furius, who neither slaves, nor coffer, nor bug, nor spider, nor fire hast, but hast both father and step-dame whose teeth can munch up even flints

xxiiii.

O thou who art the floweret of Juventian race, not only of these now living, but of those that were of yore and eke of those that will be in the comin

xxv.

O Thallus the catamite, softer than rabbit's fur, or goose's marrow, or lowmost ear-lobe, limper than the drooping penis of an oldster, in its cobwebb

xxvi.

Furius, our villa not 'gainst the southern breeze is pitted nor the western wind nor cruel Boreas nor sunny east, but sesterces fifteen thousand two h

xxvii.

Boy cupbearer of old Falernian, pour me fiercer cups as bids the laws of Postumia, mistress of the feast, drunker than a drunken grape. But ye, hence,

xxviii.

Piso's Company, a starveling band, with lightweight knapsacks, scantly packed, most dear Veranius thou, and my Fabullus eke, how fortunes it with you?

xxviiii.

Who can witness this, who can brook it, save a whore-monger, a guzzler, and a gamester, that Mamurra should possess what long-haired Gaul and remotest

xxx.

Alfenus, unmemoried and unfaithful to thy comrades true, is there now no pity in thee, O hard of heart, for thine sweet loving friend? Dost thou betra

xxxi.

Sirmio! Eyebabe of Islands and Peninsulas, which Neptune holds whether in limpid lakes or on mighty mains, how gladly and how gladsomely do I resee th

xxxii.

I'll love thee, my sweet Ipsithilla, my delight, my pleasure: an thou bid me come to thee at noontide. And an thou thus biddest, I adjure thee that no

xxxiii.

O, chiefest of pilferers, baths frequenting, Vibennius the father and his pathic son (for with the right hand is the sire more in guilt, and with his

xxxiiii.

We, maids and upright youths, are in Diana's care: upright youths and maids, we sing Diana.

xxxv.

To that sweet poet, my comrade, Caecilius, I bid thee, paper, say: that he hie him here to Verona, quitting New Comum's city-walls and Larius' shore

xxxvi.

Volusius' Annals, merdous paper, fulfil ye a vow for my girl: for she vowed to sacred Venus and to Cupid that if I were reunited to her and I desisted

xxxvii.

Tavern of lust and you its tippling crowd, (at ninth pile sign-post from the Cap-donned Brothers) think ye that ye alone have mentules, that 'tis allo

xxxviii.

'Tis ill, Cornificius, with thy Catullus, 'tis ill, by Hercules, and most untoward and greater, greater ill, each day and hour! And thou, what solace

xxxviiii.

Egnatius, who has milk-white teeth, grins for ever and aye. An he be in court, when counsel excites tears, he grins. An he be at funeral pyre where on

xxxx.

What mind ill set, O sorry Ravidus, doth thrust thee rashly on to my iambics? What god, none advocate of good for thee, doth stir thee to a senseless

xxxxi.

Ametina, out-drainèd maiden, worries me for a whole ten thousand, that damsel with an outspread nose, chère amie of Formianus the wildling. Ye near of

xxxxii.

Hither, all ye hendecasyllables, as many as may be, from every part, all of ye, as many soever as there be! A shameless prostitute deems me fair sport

xxxxiii.

Hail, O maiden with nose not of the tiniest, with foot lacking shape and eyes lacking darkness, with fingers scant of length, and mouth not dry and to

xxxxiiii.

O, Homestead of ours, whether Sabine or Tiburtine (for that thou'rt Tiburtine folk concur, in whose heart 'tis not to wound Catullus but those in who

xxxxv.

Septumius clasping Acme his adored to his bosom, Acme mine, quoth he, if thee I love not to perdition, nor am prepared to love through all the futu

xxxxvi.

Now springtide brings back its mild and tepid airs, now the heaven's fury equinoctial is calmed by Zephyr's benign breath. The Phrygian meadows are le

xxxxvii.

Porcius and Socration, twins in rascality of Piso, scurf and famisht of the earth, you before my Veraniolus and Fabullus has that prepuce-lacking Pria

xxxxviii.

Thine honey-sweet eyes, O Juventius, had I the leave to kiss for aye, for aye I'd kiss e'en to three hundred thousand kisses, nor ever should I reach

xxxxviiii.

Most eloquent of Romulus' descendancy, who are, who have been, O Marcus Tullius, and who shall later be in after time, to thee doth give his greatest

Yestreen, Licinius, in restful day, much mirthful verse we flashed upon my tablets, as became us, men of fancy. Each jotting versicles in turn sported

He to me to be peer to a god doth seem, he, if such were lawful, to o'er-top the gods, who sitting oft a-front of thee doth gaze on thee, and doth lis

lii.

Prithee Catullus, why delay thine death? Nonius the tumour is seated in the curule chair, Vatinius forswears himself for consul's rank: prithee Catull

liii.

I laughed at I know not whom in the crowded court who, when with admirable art Vatinius' crimes my Calvus had set forth, with hands uplifted and admir

Otho's head is paltry past all phrase * * * the uncouth semi-soaped shanks of Nerius, the slender soundless fizzlings of Libo * * * if not all things

lv.

We beg, if maybe 'tis not untoward, thou'lt shew us where may be thine haunt sequestered. Thee did we quest within the Lesser Fields, thee in the Circ

lvi.

O thing ridiculous, Cato, and facetious, and worthy of thine ears and of thy laughter. Laugh, Cato, the more thou lovest Catullus: the thing is ridicu

lvii.

A comely couple of shameless catamites, Mamurra and Caesar, pathics both. Nor needs amaze: they share like stains - this, Urban, the other, Formian -

lviii.

O Caelius, our Lesbia, that Lesbia, the self-same Lesbia whom Catullus more than himself and all his own did worship, now at cross-roads and in alleys

lviiii.

Rufa of Bononia lends her lips to Rufulus, she the wife of Menenius, whom oft among the sepulchres ye have seen clutching her meal from the funeral pi

lx.

Did a lioness of the Libyan Hills, or Scylla yelping from her lowmost groin, thee procreate, with mind so hard and horrid, that thou hast contempt upo

O Fosterer of the Helicon Hill, sprung from Urania, who beareth the gentle virgin to her mate, O Hymenaeus Hymen, O Hymen Hymenaeus!

Over the vast main borne by swift-sailing ship, Attis, as with hasty hurried foot he reached the Phrygian wood and gained the tree-girt gloomy sanctua

lxiiii.

ON ANOTHER PART OF THE COVERLET.

10.

11.

12.

Pines aforetimes sprung from Pelion peak floated, so 'tis said, through liquid billows of Neptune to the flowing Phasis and the confines Aeetaean, whe

lxv.

Though outspent with care and unceasing grief, I am withdrawn, Ortalus, from the learned Virgins, nor is my soul's mind able to bring forth sweet babe

lxvi.

He who scanned all the lights of the great firmament, who ascertained the rising and the setting of the stars, how the flaming splendour of the swift

That when, opprest by fortune and in grievous case, thou didst send me this epistle o'erwrit with tears, that I might bear up shipwrecked thee tossed

lxviiii.

Be unwilling to wonder wherefore no woman, O Rufus, is wishful to place her tender thigh 'neath thee, not even if thou dost tempt her by the gift of a

lxx.

No one, saith my lady, would she rather wed than myself, not even if Jupiter's self crave her. Thus she saith! but what a woman tells an ardent amouri

lxxi.

If ever anyone was deservedly cursed with an atrocious goat-stench from armpits, or if limping gout did justly gnaw one, 'tis thy rival, who occupies

lxxii.

Once thou didst profess to know but Catullus, Lesbia, nor wouldst hold Jove before me. I loved thee then, not only as a churl his mistress, but as a f

lxxiii.

Cease thou to wish to merit well from anyone in aught, or to think any can become honourable. All are ingrate, naught benign doth avail to aught, but

lxxiiii.

Gellius had heard that his uncle was wont to be wroth, if any spake of or practised love-sportings. That this should not happen to him, he kneaded up

lxxvii.

O Rufus, credited by me as a friend, wrongly and for naught, (wrongly? nay, at an ill and grievous price) hast thou thus stolen upon me, and a-burning

lxxviii.

Gallus has brothers, one of whom has a most charming spouse, the other a charming son. Gallus is a nice fellow! for pandering to their sweet loves, he

lxxviiii.

Lesbius is handsome: why not so? when Lesbia prefers him to thee, Catullus, and to thy whole tribe. Yet this handsome one may sell Catullus and his tr

lxxx.

What shall I say, Gellius, wherefore those lips, erstwhile rosy-red, have become whiter than wintery snow, thou leaving home at morn and when the noon

lxxxi.

Could there be no one in so great a crowd, Juventius, no gallant whom thou couldst fall to admiring, beyond him, the guest of thy hearth from moribund

lxxxii.

Quintius, if thou dost wish Catullus to owe his eyes to thee, or aught, if such may be, dearer than his eyes, be unwilling to snatch from him what is

lxxxiii.

Lesbia in her lord's presence says the utmost ill about me: this gives the greatest pleasure to that ninny. Ass, thou hast no sense! if through forget

lxxxiiii.

Chommodious did Arrius say, whenever he had need to say commodious, and for insidious hinsidious hinsidious Hionian Hocean

lxxxv.

I hate and I love. Wherefore do I so, peradventure thou askest. I know not, but I feel it to be thus and I suffer.

lxxxvi.

Quintia is lovely to many to me she is fair, tall, and shapely. Each of these qualities I grant. But that all these make loveliness I deny: for nothi

lxxxvii.

No woman can say with truth that she has been loved as much as thou, Lesbia, hast been loved by me: no love-troth was ever so greatly observed as in l

lxxvi.

If to recall good deeds erewhiles performed be pleasure to a man, when he knows himself to be of probity, nor has violated sacred faith, nor has abuse

lxxxviii.

What does he, Gellius, who with mother and sister itches and keeps vigils with tunics cast aside? What does he, who suffers not his uncle to be a husb

lxxxviiii.

Gellius is meagre: why not? He who lives with so good a mother, so healthy and so beauteous a sister, and who has such a good uncle, and a world-full

lxxxx.

Let there be born a Magian from the infamous conjoining of Gellius and his mother, and he shall learn the Persian aruspicy. For a Magian from a mother

lxxxxi.

Not for other reason, Gellius, did I hope for thy faith to me in this our unhappy, this our desperate love (because I knew thee well nor thought thee

lxxxxii.

Lesbia forever speaks ill of me nor is ever silent anent me: may I perish if Lesbia do not love me! By what sign? because I am just the same: I malign

lxxxxiii.

I am not over anxious, Caesar, to please thee greatly, nor to know whether thou art white or black man.

lxxxxiiii.

Mentula whores. By the mentule he is bewhored: certes. This is as though they say the oil pot itself gathers the olives.

lxxxxv.

My Cinna's Zmyrna at length, after nine harvests from its inception, is published when nine winters have gone by, whilst in the meantime Hortensius

lxxxxvi.

If aught grateful or acceptable can penetrate the silent graves from our dolour, Calvus, when with sweet regret we renew old loves and beweep the lost

lxxxxvii.

Nay (may the Gods thus love me) have I thought there to be aught of choice whether I might smell thy mouth or thy buttocks, O Aemilius. Nothing could

lxxxxviii.

To thee, if to anyone, may I say, foul-mouthed Victius, that which is said to wind bags and fatuities. For with that tongue, if need arrive, thou coul

lxxxxviiii.

I snatched from thee, whilst thou wast sporting, O honied Juventius, a kiss sweeter than sweet ambrosia. But I bore it off not unpunished for more th

Caelius, Aufilenus and Quintius, Aufilena - flower of the Veronese youth - love desperately: this, the brother that, the sister. This is, as one wo

ci.

Through many a folk and through many waters borne, I am come, brother, to thy sad grave, that I may give the last gifts to the dead, and may vainly sp

cii.

If aught be committed to secret faith from a friend to one whose inner faith of soul is known, thou wilt find me to be of that sacred faith, O Corneli

ciii.

Prithee, either return me my ten thousand sesterces, Silo then be to thy content surly and boorish: or, if the money allure thee, desist I pray thee

ciiii.

Dost deem me capable of speaking ill of my life, she who is dearer to me than are both mine eyes? I could not, nor if I could, would my love be so des

cv.

cvi.

When with a comely lad a crier is seen to be, what may be thought save that he longs to sell himself.

cvii.

If what one desires and covets is ever obtained unhoped for, this is specially grateful to the soul. Wherefore is it grateful to us and far dearer tha

cviii.

If, O Cominius, by the people's vote thy hoary age made filthy by unclean practices shall perish, forsure I doubt not but that first thy tongue, hosti

cviiii.

My joy, my life, thou declarest to me that this love of ours shall last ever between us. Great Gods! grant that she may promise truly, and say this in

cx.

Aufilena, honest harlots are always praised: they accept the price of what they intend to do. Thou didst promise that to me, which, being a feigned pr

cxi.

Aufilena, to be content to live with single mate, in married dame is praise of praises most excelling: but 'tis preferable to lie beneath any lover th

cxii.

A mighty man thou art, Naso, yet is a man not mighty who doth stoop like thee: Naso thou art mighty - and pathic.

cxiii.

In the first consulate of Pompey, two, Cinna, were wont to frequent Mucilla: now again made consul, the two remain, but thousands may be added to each

cxiiii.

With Firmian demesne not falsely is Mentula deemed rich, who has everything in it of such excellence, game preserves of every kind, fish, meadows, ara

cxv.

Mentula has something like thirty acres of meadow land, forty under cultivation: the rest are as the sea. Why might he not o'erpass Croesus in wealth,

cxvi.

Oft with studious mind brought close, enquiring how I might send thee the poems of Battiades for use, that I might soften thee towards us, nor thou co

lxvi.

(Loquitur) Berenice's Lock.

He who every light of the sky world's vastness inspected,

He who mastered in mind risings and settings of stars,

How of the fast rising sun obscured be the fiery splendours,

How at the seasons assured vanish the planets from view,

How Diana to lurk thief-like 'neath Latmian stonefields, 5

Summoned by sweetness of Love, comes from her aëry gyre;

That same Cónon espied among lights Celestial shining

Me, Berenice's Hair, which, from her glorious head,

Fulgent in brightness afar, to many a host of the Godheads

Stretching her soft smooth arms she vowed to devoutly bestow, 10

What time strengthened by joy of new-made wedlock the monarch

Bounds of Assyrian land hurried to plunder and pill;

Bearing of nightly strife new signs and traces delicious,

Won in the war he waged virginal trophies to win.

Loathsome is Venus to all new-paired? Else why be the parents' 15

Pleasure frustrated aye by the false flow of tears

Poured in profusion amid illuminate genial chamber?

Nay not real the groans; ever so help me the Gods!

This truth taught me my Queen by force of manifold 'plainings

After her new groom hied facing the fierceness of fight. 20

Yet so thou mournedst not for a bed deserted of husband,

As for a brother beloved wending on woefullest way?

How was the marrow of thee consumedly wasted by sorrow!

So clean forth of thy breast, rackt with solicitous care,

Mind fled, sense being reft! But I have known thee for certain 25

E'en from young virginal years lofty of spirit to be.

Hast thou forgotten the feat whose greatness won thee a royal

Marriage - a deed so prow, never a prower was dared?

Yet how sad was the speech thou spakest, thy husband farewelling!

(Jupiter!) Often thine eyes wiping with sorrowful hand! 30

What manner God so great thus changed thee? Is it that lovers

Never will tarry afar parted from person beloved?

Then unto every God on behalf of thy helpmate, thy sweeting,

Me thou gavest in vow, not without bloodshed of bulls,

If he be granted return, and long while nowise delaying, 35

Captive Asia he add unto Egyptian bounds.

Now for such causes I, enrolled in host of the Heavens,

By a new present, discharge promise thou madest of old:

Maugrè my will, O Queen, my place on thy head I relinquished,

Maugrè my will, I attest, swearing by thee and thy head; 40

Penalty due shall befall whoso makes oath to no purpose.

Yet who assumes the vaunt forceful as iron to be?

E'en was that mount o'erthrown, though greatest in universe, where

through

Thía's illustrious race speeded its voyage to end,

Whenas the Medes brought forth new sea, and barbarous youth-hood 45

Urged an Armada to swim traversing middle-Athos.

What can be done by Hair when such things yield them to Iron?

Jupiter! Grant Chalybon perish the whole of the race,

Eke who in primal times ore seeking under the surface

Showed th' example, and spalled iron however so hard. 50

Shortly before I was shorn my sister tresses bewailèd

Lot of me, e'en as the sole brother to Memnon the Black,

Winnowing upper air wi' feathers flashing and quiv'ring,

Chloris' wing-borne steed, came before Arsinoë,

Whence upraising myself he flies through aëry shadows, 55

And in chaste Venus' breast drops he the present he bears.

Eke Zephyritis had sent, for the purpose trusted, her bondsman,

Settler of Grecian strain on the Canopian strand.

So willèd various Gods, lest sole 'mid lights of the Heavens

Should Ariadne's crown taken from temples of her 60

Glitter in gold, but we not less shine fulgent in splendour,

We the consecrate spoils shed by a blond-hued head,

Even as weeping-wet sought I the fanes of Celestials,

Placed me the Goddess a new light amid starlights of old:

For with Virgo in touch and joining the furious Lion's 65

Radiance with Callisto, maid of Lycáon beloved,

Wind I still to the west, conducting tardy Boötes,

Who unwilling and slow must into Ocean merge.

Yet though press me o'night the pacing footprints of Godheads,

Tethys, hoary of hair, ever regains me by day. 70

(Lend me thy leave to speak such words, Rhamnusian Virgin,

Verities like unto these never in fear will I veil;

Albeit every star asperse me with enemy's censure,

Secrets in soothfast heart hoarded perforce I reveal.)

Nowise gladdens me so this state as absence torments me, 75

Absence doomèd for aye ta'en fro' my mistress's head,

Where I was wont (though she such cares unknew in her girlhood)

Many a thousand scents, Syrian unguents, to sip.

Now do you pair conjoined by the longed-for light of the torches,

Earlier yield not selves unto unanimous wills 80

Nor wi' the dresses doft your barèd nipples encounter,

Ere shall yon onyx-vase pour me libations glad,

Onyx yours, ye that seek only rights of virtuous bed-rite.

But who yieldeth herself unto advowtry impure,

Ah! may her loathèd gifts in light dust uselessly soak, 85

For of unworthy sprite never a gift I desire.

Rather, O new-mated brides, be concord aye your companion,

Ever let constant love dwell in the dwellings of you.

Yet when thou sightest, O Queen, the Constellations, I pray thee,

Every festal day Venus the Goddess appease; 90

Nor of thy unguent-gifts allow myself to be lacking,

Nay, do thou rather add largeliest increase to boons.

Would but the stars down fall! Could I of my Queen be the hair-lock,

Neighbour to Hydrochois e'en let Oarion shine.