The Poems and Fragments of Catullus | Page 9

did aptly finger
My passivity, fool'd me
most supinely. 10
Friends, confess it; in e'en as hard a fortune
You stand mulcted, on
you a like abashless
Rake rides heavily. Court the great who wills it!
Gods and goddesses evil heap upon ye,
Rogues to Romulus and to
Remus outcast. 15
XXIX.
Can any brook to see it, any tamely bear--
If any, gamester, epicure, a
wanton, he--
Mamurra's own whatever all the curly Gauls
Did else
inherit, or the lonely Briton isle?
Can you look on, look idly, filthy
Romulus? 5
Shall he, in o'er-assumption, o'er-repletion he,
Sedately saunter every
dainty couch along,
A bright Adonis, as the snowy dove serene?

Can you look on, look idly, filthy Romulus?
Look idly, gamester,
epicure, a wanton, you. 10
Unique commander, and was only this the plea
Detain'd you in that
islet angle of the west,
To gorge the shrunk seducer irreclaimable

With haply twice a million, add a million yet?
What else was e'er
unhealthy prodigality? 15
The waste? to lust a little? on the belly less?
Begin; a glutted hoard
paternal; ebb the first.
To this, the booty Pontic; add the spoil from
out
Iberia, known to Tagus' amber ory stream.
Not only Gaul, nor
only quail the Briton isles. 20

What help a rogue to fondle? is not all his act
To swallow monies,
empty purses heap on heap?
But you--to please him only, shame to
Rome, to me!
Could you the son, the father, idly ruin all?
XXX.
False Alfenus, in all amity frail, duty a prodigal,
Doth thy pity depart?
Shall not a friend, traitor, a friend recal
Love? what courage is here me to betray, me to repudiate?
. . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Never sure did a lie, never a sin, please the celestials.
This you heed not; alas! leave me to new misery, desolate. (5) O where
now shall a man trust? liveth yet any fidelity?
You, you only did urge love to be free, life to surrender, you. Guiding
into the snare, falsely secure, prophet of happiness. 10
Now you leave me, retract, every deed, every word allow Into nullity
winds far to remove, vapoury clouds to bear. (10)
You forget me, but yet surely the Gods, surely remembereth Faith;
hereafter again honour awakes, causeth a wretch to rue.
XXXI.
O thou of islands jewel and of half-islands,
Fair Sirmio, whatever o'er
the lakes' clear rim
Or waste of ocean, Neptune holds, a two-fold
pow'r;
What joy have I to see thee, and to gaze what glee!
Scarce yet believing Thunia past, the fair champaign 5 Bithunian, yet in
safety thee to greet once more.
From cares to part us--where is any
joy like this?
Then drops the soul her fardel, as the travel-tir'd
World-weary

wand'rer touches home, returns, sinks down In joy to slumber on the
bed desir'd so long. 10 This meed, this only counts for e'en an age all
toil.
O take a welcome, lovely Sirmio, thy lord's,
And greet him happy;
greet him all the lake Lydian;
Laugh out whatever laughter at the
hearth rings clear.
XXXII.
List, I charge thee, my gentle Ipsithilla,
Lovely ravisher and my
dainty mistress,
Say we'll linger a lazy noon together.
Suits my company? lend a farther hearing:
See no jealousy make the
gate against me, 5 See no fantasy lead thee out a-roaming.
Keep close
chamber; anon in all profusion
Count me kisses again again
returning.
Bides thy will? with a sudden haste command me;
Full and wistful, at
ease reclin'd, a lover 10 Here I languish alone, supinely dreaming.
XXXIII.
Master-robber of all that haunt the bath-rooms,
Old Vibennius, and
his heir the wanton;
(His the dirtier hands, the greedy father,
Yours
the filthier heart, his heir as hungry;)
Please your knaveries hoist a sail for exile, 5 Pains and privacy? since
by this the father's
Thefts are palpable, and a rusty favour,
Son,
picks never a penny from the people.
XXXIV.
Great Diana protecteth us,
Maids and boyhood in innocence.

Maidens virtuous, innocent
Boys, your song be Diana.

Hail, Latonia, thou that art
5

Throned daughter of enthronis'd
Jove; near Delian olive of
Mighty mother y-boren.
Queen of mountainous heights, of all

Forests leafy, delightable; 10 Glens in bowery depths remote,
Rivers wrathfully sounding.
Thee, Lucina, the travailing
Mother
haileth, a sovereign
Juno; Trivia thou, the bright
15