Carmina
Catullus
Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.
- Come, then, tell us the why in thee such change be reported
- That to thy lord hast abjured faithfulness owed of old?
- Never (so chance I to please Caeci1ius owning me now-a-days!)
- Is it my own default, how so they say it be mine;
- Nor can any declare aught sin by me was committed.
- Yet it is so declared (Quintus!) by fable of folk;
- Who, whenever they find things done no better than should be,
- Come to me outcrying all:—"Door, the default is thine own!"
- This be never enough for thee one-worded to utter,
- But in such way to deal, each and all sense it and see.
- What shall I do? None asks, while nobody troubles to know.
- Willing are we? unto us stay not thy saying to say.
- First let me note that the maid to us committed (assert they)
- Was but a fraud: her mate never a touch of her had,
- ---
- But that a father durst dishonour the bed of his first-born,
- Folk all swear, and the house hapless with incest bewray;
- Or that his impious mind was blunt with fiery passion
- Or that his impotent son sprang from incapable seed.
- And to be sought was one with nerve more nervous endowèd,