Carmina
Catullus
Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.
- Never, my woman oft says, with any of men will she mate be,
- Save wi' my own very self, ask her though Jupiter deign!
- Says she: but womanly words that are spoken to desireful lover
- Ought to be written on wind or upon water that runs.
- An of a goat-stink damned from armpits fusty one suffer,
- Or if a crippling gout worthily any one rack,
- 'Tis that rival o' thine who lief in loves of you meddles,
- And, by a wondrous fate, gains him the twain of such ills.
- For that, oft as he . . . , so oft that penance be two-fold;
- Stifles her stench of goat, he too is kilt by his gout.