Carmina

Lesbius is handsome: why not so? whom Lesbia prefers to you, Catullus, and to your whole family. Yet this handsome one can sell Catullus and his family if he can find three acquaintances he can gain greet with a kiss.

What shall I say, Gellius, how those rosy-red lips have become whiter than winter snow, when you leave home in the morning and when the eighth hour stirs you from a gentle nap amid the long day? Something is certain: perhaps Rumor whispers true that you are devouring the well-grown tenseness of a man's middle? So for certain it must be! the ruptured guts of poor little Victor and your lips marked with what was lately-drained cry it aloud.

Could no one in this great people, Juventius, be a nice man you could fall in love with except for this guest of yours, paler than a gilded statue, from the dying town of Pisaurum? He who now has your heart, whom you dare to place before us; and you know not what crime you commit.

Quintius, if you want Catullus to owe you his eyes, or another thing dearer than his eyes, if such there is, do not snatch from him what is much dearer to him than his eyes, or what is dearer than his eyes.