Carmina

Catullus

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

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