Carmina
Catullus
Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.
- How yet more, ever more, with golden splendour she paled!
- Whenas yearning to mate his might with the furious monster
- Theseus braved his death or sought the prizes of praises.
- Then of her gifts to gods not ingrate, nor profiting naught,
- Promise with silent lip, addressed she timidly vowing.
- For as an oak that shakes on topmost summit of Taurus
- Its boughs, or cone-growing pine from bole bark resin exuding,
- Whirlwind of passing might that twists the stems with its storm-blasts,
- Uproots, deracinates, forthright its trunk to the farthest,
- Prone falls, shattering wide what lies in line of its downfall,—
- Thus was that wildling flung by Theseus and vanquisht of body,
- Vainly tossing its horns and goring the wind to no purpose.
- Thence with abounding praise returned he, guiding his footsteps,
- While a fine drawn thread checked steps in wander abounding,
- Lest when issuing forth of the winding maze labyrinthine
- Baffled become his track by inobservable error.
- But for what cause should I, from early subject digressing,
- Tell of the daughter who the face of her sire unseeing,
- Eke her sister's embrace nor less her mother's endearments,
- Who in despair bewept her hapless child that so gladly