Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Now must I Cybele's she-slave, priestess of gods, be hight?
  2. I Maenad I, mere bit of self, I neutral barren wight?
  3. I spend my life-tide couch't beneath high-towering Phrygian peaks?
  4. I dwell on Ida's verdant slopes mottled with snowy streaks,
  5. Where homes the forest-haunting doe, where roams the wildling boar?
  6. Now, now I rue my deed foredone, now, now it irks me sore!"
  7. Whenas from out those roseate lips these accents rapid flew,
  8. Bore them to ears divine consigned a Nuncio true and new;
  9. Then Cybele her lions twain disjoining from their yoke
  10. The left-hand enemy of the herds a-goading thus bespoke:
  11. "Up feral fell! up, hie with him, see rage his foot-steps urge,
  12. See that his fury smite him till he seek the forest verge,
  13. He who with over-freedom fain would fly mine empery.