Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Than to be breeder of boys uncle as cousins begat.
  1. Great th'art (Naso!) as man, nor like thee many in greatness
  2. Lower themselves (Naso!): great be thou, pathic to boot.
  1. Pompey first being chosen Consul, twofold (O Cinna!)
  2. Men for amours were famed: also when chosen again
  3. Two they remained; but now is each one grown to a thousand
  4. Gallants:—fecundate aye springeth adultery's seed.
  1. For yon Firmian domain not falsely Mentula hight is
  2. Richard, owning for self so many excellent things—
  3. Fish, fur, feather, all kinds, with prairie, corn-land, and ferals.
  4. All no good: for th' outgoing, income immensely exceeds.
  5. Therefore his grounds be rich own I, while he's but a pauper.
  6. Laud we thy land while thou lackest joyance thereof.
  1. Mentula! masterest thou some thirty acres of grassland
  2. Full told, forty of field soil; others are sized as the sea.
  3. Why may he not surpass in his riches any a Crœsus
  4. Who in his one domain owns such abundance of good,
  5. Grasslands, arable fields, vast woods and forest and marish