Carmina

Catullus

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

  1. So do thou either kill that cruel pest o' their noses,
  2. Or at their reason of flight blatantly wondering cease.
  1. Never, my woman oft says, with any of men will she mate be,
  2. Save wi' my own very self, ask her though Jupiter deign!
  3. Says she: but womanly words that are spoken to desireful lover
  4. Ought to be written on wind or upon water that runs.
  1. An of a goat-stink damned from armpits fusty one suffer,
  2. Or if a crippling gout worthily any one rack,
  3. 'Tis that rival o' thine who lief in loves of you meddles,
  4. And, by a wondrous fate, gains him the twain of such ills.
  5. For that, oft as he . . . , so oft that penance be two-fold;
  6. Stifles her stench of goat, he too is kilt by his gout.
  1. Wont thou to vaunt whilòme of, knowing only Catullus
  2. (Lesbia!) nor to prefer Jupiter's self to myself.
  3. Then, too, I loved thee well, not as vulgar wretch his mistress
  4. But as a father his sons loves and his sons by the law.
  5. Now have I learnt thee aright; wherefor though burn I the hotter,
  6. Lighter and viler by far thou unto me hast become.
  7. "How can this be?" dost ask: 'tis that such injury ever
  8. Forces the hotter to love, also the less well to will.
  1. Cease thou of any to hope desirèd boon of well-willing,
  2. Or deem any shall prove pious and true to his dues.