Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. Then Thetis' Sire himself her yoke with Peleus sanctioned.
  2. Oh, in those happier days now fondly yearned-for, you heroes
  3. Born; (all hail!) of the gods begotten, and excellent issue
  4. Bred by your mothers, all hail! and placid deal me your favour.
  5. Oft with the sound of me, in strains and spells I'll invoke you;
  6. You too by wedding-torch so happily, highly augmented,
  7. Peleus, Thessaly's ward, in whose favor Jupiter himself,
  8. The Father of the gods, resigned his passions.
  9. You Thetis, fairest of maids Nereian, vouchsafed to marry?
  10. You did Tethys empower to woo and wed with her grandchild;
  11. Nor less Oceanus, with water compassing th' Earth-globe?
  12. But when ended the term, and wisht-for light of the day-tide
  13. Uprose, flocks to the house in concourse mighty, convened,
  14. Thessaly all, with glad assembly the Palace fulfilling:
  15. Presents afore they bring, and joy in faces declare they.
  16. Cieros abides a desert: they quit Phthiotican Tempe,
  17. Homesteads of Crannon-town, eke bulwarkt walls Larissa;
  18. Meeting at Pharsalus, and roof Pharsalian seeking.
  19. None will the fields now till; soft wax all necks the oxen,
  20. Never the humble vine is purged by curve of the rake-tooth,