Carmina
Catullus
Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.
- Nothing is this more clean, uncleaner nothing that other,
- Yet I ajudge . . . . cleaner and nicer to be;
- For while this one lacks teeth, that one has cubit-long tushes,
- Set in their battered gums favouring a muddy old box,
- Not to say aught of gape like wide-cleft gap of a she-mule
- Whenas in summer-heat wont peradventure to stale.
- Yet has he many a motte and holds himself to be handsome—
- Why wi' the baker's ass is he not bound to the mill?
- Him if a damsel kiss we fain must think she be ready
- With her fair lips . . . .
- Rightly of thee may be said, an of any, (thou stinkingest Victius!)
- Whatso wont we to say touching the praters and prigs.
- Thou wi' that tongue o' thine own, if granted occasion availest
- Brogues of the cowherds to kiss, also their . . . .
- Wouldst thou undo us all with a thorough undoing (0 Victius!)
- Open thy gape :—thereby all shall be wholly undone.