Carmina
Catullus
Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.
- So this marvel o' mine sees naught, and nothing can hear he,
- What he himself, an he be or not be, wholly unknowing.
- Now would I willingly pitch such wight head first fro' thy bridge,
- Better a-sudden t'arouse that numskull's stolid old senses,
- Or in the sluggish mud his soul supine to deposit
- Even as she-mule casts iron shoe where quagmire is stiffest.
- This grove to thee devote I give, Priapus!
- Who home be Lampsacus and holt, Priapus!
- For thee in cities worship most the shores
- Of Hellespont the richest oystery strand.
- This place, O youths, I protect, nor less this turfbuilded cottage,
- Roofed with its osier-twigs and thatched with its bundles of sedges;
- I from the dried oak hewn and fashioned with rustical hatchet,
- Guarding them year by year while more are they evermore thriving.
- For here be owners twain who greet and worship my Godship,
- He of the poor hut lord and his son, the pair of them peasants:
- This with assiduous toil aye works the thicketty herbage
- And the coarse water-grass to clear afar from my chapel:
- That with his open hand ever brings me offerings humble.
- Hung up in honour mine are flowery firstlings of spring-tide,