Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Protect, repelling thieves' rapacious hands.
  2. In spring with vari-coloured wreaths I'm crown'd,
  3. In fervid summer with the glowing grain,
  4. Then with green vine-shoot and the luscious bunch,
  5. And glaucous olive-tree in bitter cold.
  6. The dainty she-goat from my pasture bears
  7. Her milk-distended udders to the town:
  8. Out of my sheep-cotes ta'en the fatted lamb
  9. Sends home with silver right-hand heavily charged;
  10. And, while its mother lows, the tender calf
  11. Before the temples of the Gods must bleed.
  12. Hence of such Godhead, (traveller !) stand in awe,
  13. Best it befits thee off to keep thy hands.
  14. Thy cross is ready, shaped as artless yard;
  15. "I'm willing, 'faith" (thou say'st) but 'faith here comes
  16. The boor, and plucking forth with bended arm
  17. Makes of this tool a club for doughty hand.
  1. Aurelius, father of the famisht crew,
  2. Not sole of starvelings now, but wretches who
  3. Were, are, or shall be in the years to come,