The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus | Page 6

Adriatici
Negare litus insulasve Cycladas
Rhodumque nobilem
horridamque Thraciam
Propontida trucemve Ponticum sinum,
Vbi
iste post phaselus antea fuit 10 Comata silva: nam Cytorio in iugo

Loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma.
Amastri Pontica et Cytore
buxifer,
Tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
Ait phaselus: ultima
ex origine 15 Tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine,
Tuo imbuisse palmulas
in aequore,
Et inde tot per inpotentia freta
Erum tulisse, laeva sive
dextera
Vocaret aura, sive utrumque Iuppiter 20 Simul secundus
incidisset in pedem;
Neque ulla vota litoralibus deis
Sibi esse facta,
cum veniret a marei
Novissime hunc ad usque limpidum lacum.

Sed haec prius fuere: nunc recondita 25 Senet quiete seque dedicat tibi,

Gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.
IIII.
ON HIS PINNACE.
Yonder Pinnace ye (my guests!) behold
Saith she was erstwhile
fleetest-fleet of crafts,
Nor could by swiftness of aught plank that
swims,
Be she outstripped, whether paddle plied,
Or fared she

scudding under canvas-sail. 5 Eke she defieth threat'ning Adrian shore,

Dare not denay her, insular Cyclades,
And noble Rhodos and
ferocious Thrace,
Propontis too and blustering Pontic bight.
Where
she (my Pinnace now) in times before, 10 Was leafy woodling on
Cytórean Chine
For ever loquent lisping with her leaves.
Pontic
Amastris! Box-tree-clad Cytórus!
Cognisant were ye, and you weet
full well
(So saith my Pinnace) how from earliest age 15 Upon your
highmost-spiring peak she stood,
How in your waters first her sculls
were dipt,
And thence thro' many and many an important strait
She
bore her owner whether left or right,
Where breezes bade her fare, or
Jupiter deigned 20 At once propitious strike the sail full square;
Nor
to the sea-shore gods was aught of vow
By her deemed needful, when
from Ocean's bourne
Extreme she voyaged for this limpid lake.
Yet
were such things whilome: now she retired 25 In quiet age devotes
herself to thee
(O twin-born Castor) twain with Castor's twin.
That pinnace which ye see, my friends, says that it was the speediest of
boats, nor any craft the surface skimming but it could gain the lead,
whether the course were gone o'er with plashing oars or bended sail.
And this the menacing Adriatic shores may not deny, nor may the
Island Cyclades, nor noble Rhodes and bristling Thrace, Propontis nor
the gusty Pontic gulf, where itself (afterwards a pinnace to become)
erstwhile was a foliaged clump; and oft on Cytorus' ridge hath this
foliage announced itself in vocal rustling. And to thee, Pontic Amastris,
and to box-screened Cytorus, the pinnace vows that this was alway and
yet is of common knowledge most notorious; states that from its primal
being it stood upon thy topmost peak, dipped its oars in thy waters, and
bore its master thence through surly seas of number frequent, whether
the wind whistled 'gainst the starboard quarter or the lee or whether
Jove propitious fell on both the sheets at once; nor any vows [from
stress of storm] to shore-gods were ever made by it when coming from
the uttermost seas unto this glassy lake. But these things were of time
gone by: now laid away, it rusts in peace and dedicates its age to thee,
twin Castor, and to Castor's twin.
V.

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
Rumoresque senum
severiorum
Omnes unius aestimemus assis.
Soles occidere et redire
possunt:
Nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux, 5 Nox est perpetua una
dormienda.
Da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
Dein mille altera,
dein secunda centum,
Deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.

Dein, cum milia multa fecerimus, 10 Conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,

Aut nequis malus invidere possit,
Cum tantum sciet esse basiorum.
V.
TO LESBIA, (OF LESBOS--CLODIA?)
Love we (my Lesbia!) and live we our day,
While all stern sayings
crabbed sages say,
At one doit's value let us price and prize!
The
Suns can westward sink again to rise
But we, extinguished once our
tiny light, 5 Perforce shall slumber through one lasting night!
Kiss me
a thousand times, then hundred more,
Then thousand others, then a
new five-score,
Still other thousand other hundred store.
Last when
the sums to many thousands grow, 10 The tale let's trouble till no more
we know,
Nor envious wight despiteful shall misween us
Knowing
how many kisses have been kissed between us.
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, and count all the mumblings of
sour age at a penny's fee. Suns set can rise again: we when once our
brief light has set must sleep through a perpetual night. Give me of
kisses a thousand, and then a hundred, then another thousand, then a
second hundred, then another thousand without resting, then a hundred.
Then, when we have made many thousands, we will confuse the count
lest we know the numbering, so that no wretch may be able to envy us
through knowledge of our kisses' number.
VI.
Flavi, delicias tuas Catullo,
Nei sint inlepidae atque inelegantes,

Velles dicere, nec tacere posses.
Verum nescioquid febriculosi

Scorti diligis: hoc pudet fateri. 5 Nam te non viduas iacere noctes


Nequiquam tacitum cubile clamat
Sertis ac Syrio fragrans olivo,

Pulvinusque peraeque et hic et ille
Attritus, tremulique quassa lecti 10
Argutatio inambulatioque.
Nam nil stupra valet, nihil, tacere.
Cur?
non tam latera ecfututa