From Catullus
Translated by Scott B Robinson
Copyright 2011 Scott B Robinson
Smashwords Edition
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Table of Contents
Click on the first verse in English to go to the translation; click on the Latin beneath to view the original poem. When viewing each individual poem, the reader may also click on the title to toggle between the translation and the original. D.F.S Thomson’s excellent edition of the Catulli Veronensis Liber serves as my sole original text.
Carmen 14b
If, with those perhaps who’re versed in my
Si qui forte mearum ineptiarum
Carmen 67
You...a gentlemen’s friend, friend to your elders.
O dulci iucunda viro, iucunda parenti,
Carmen 48
Those your ‘honey-dearest’ eyes, Iuventius!
Mellitos oculos tuos, Iuventi,
Carmen 16
Swallow this down whole—straight up your assholes,
Carmen 24
O you, prize-rose of the Iuventii—not
O qui flosculus es Iuventiorum,
Carmen 15
I trust that you’d—on my & my love’s behalf,
Commendo tibi me ac meos amores,
Carmen 27
Carmen 32
Am more than pleased if, my ladylove,
Carmen 69
Don’t be taken aback if woman won’t
Noli admirari, quare tibi femina nulla,
Carmen 82
If, Quintius: 1) you’d Catullus fawns for your regard
Quinti, si tibi vis oculos debere Catullum
Carmen 6
Flavius. ’Bout your heart’s delight? Like you’d
Carmen 29
Just what spectator, who could tolerate
Quis hoc potest videre, quis potest pati,
Carmen 2
Sparrow (my young darling lady’s:
Passer, deliciae meae puellae,
Carmen 85
T’hate and to love! and ‘Why I do?’ (should you ask)
Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
Carmen 3
Lugete, o Veneres Cupidinesque
Carmen 5
Live and, my Lesbia, may we love!
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
Carmen 46
Now spring revitalizes tempering warmth.
Iam ver egelidos refert tepores
Carmen 101
Cross many peoples,..cross many waters brought,
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
Carmen 61
If, with those perhaps who’re versed in my
divertimenti, you with this in grasp
won’t worry about recommending us,…
* * *
Conversation with a Door
You...a gentlemen’s friend, friend to your elders.
Salutations! God bestow His blessings,
Entrance, who’re reputed to’ve served Groybler well—
once had the Ole Sir bestride you dwelt.
On the other hand, I’ve heard: Ill served was son,
(and wed so soon post-the-Ole-Man’s-spill).
Come, out with it! how could you, handed over in
ownership, desert old loyalties?
“I’m (all commitments! long consistent since!)
guiltless, whatever is said of me.
No one can nowise claim it was my fault.
True, the ‘Told of Entrance’...of the crowd
that, whenever some unmentionable’s disclosed,
outcries ’gainst me, the Entrance, ‘Are guilty!’”
Singularly gainsaid. Not enough for one
sworn-in eyewitness of what’s afoot.
“What could I? No one’s cared much to pursue it.”
O we want! Now divulge lest we doubt!
“First things first: The virgin bestowed into our trust?
a fraud! Her first not for our groom’s touch:
(Her ex’s pok’r ’twas limpid’r than boil’d beet,
prov’n unfit t’stuff a half-pair o’ briefs!
That maltreative father filched that son’s bridal bed,
I’ve heard, and shamed their home scandalously.
Whether dad’s passions glowed, blind to Love’s taboos;
or his boy, uselessly impotent!
a must someone more fit somehow be called
’pon to unfasten those virgin’s bloomers;...”
You daren’t say (and commendably!!): A notable
parent filthied with whom son’s bowels yearned?
“...moreover:) Citywide verdict’s a consensus:
Brixia,..
beneath Cigneo’s hilltop,
abreast gently golden-streaming Mella!
My Verona’s Beloved Mother!
...speaks about certain Mr. Come-Lately paramours
with whom she’s stooped to adultery.
Ther’re those who’d ask, ‘How do you, Entrance, know?
who never budge from the house’s hinge,
nor accompany the buzz since, fixed upon the
jamb, you busy yourself about the home!’
Oft I’ve overheard her confide (midst her handmaids’
conclave) all sort disgracefulnesses,
speak those names I keep unspoken, and be un-
suspecting of my ears no less tongue!
She’s upped the list by one! whom I’d rather not
name—(the press might besmudge his glasses.
He’s tallish...and up against a hefty lawsuit
for lying about a mis-got heirson...”
O Boy!
Those your ‘honey-dearest’ eyes, Iuventius!
if one’d permit me so far as kiss them,
and as far the three-hundred-thousandth kiss:
no, I could never be fully satisfied,
though burgeoning grainfields under-
abound the harvest of our caressment!
Swallow this down whole—straight up your assholes,
Aurelius the letch & Furius the sodomite!
since you esteem me most indecent from
my frivolous couplets’ voluptuousness!
The straight and narrow’s suitable for an honest
author. Not so for his frivolous couplets,
which consequently display wit and spice
if they’re voluptuous, and most indecent,
capable of working up a wantonness
(much less among the boys than these old goats
unable to bestir their cramped up crotches).
Yet you, having read about countless thousand
kisses, esteem me not so much a man?
Swallow this down whole—straight up your assholes!
O you, prize-rose of the Iuventii—not
only from their present season, but all that
were or shall be in the years to come:
Better to forfeit all of China’s tea to
someone who has not a pot to piss in,
before one let oneself be loved by the same.
‘Is he not a gentleman?’ you will ask. Yes,
but the gentleman has not a pot to piss in.
So, what you will, take objection, blow this off:
The pot certainly ain’t his to piss in!
I trust that you’d—on my & my love’s behalf,
Aurelius—honor just one humble request:
If it happens something ever enthuses you or
musters you behind the sake of goodness—
let it be to protect my boy’s integrity.
Not to say from the public. One need nothing fear
from those who up, down and around the Plaza
hurry themselves about their business.
I’m afraid of you, instead, and of your dick,
a plague to boys both good and bad alike!
Whom you’re pleased to, please do arouse him howmuchso-
ever you want, where the opportunity:
I humbly must express this one exception.
Should some short-fused or some absurd mal-intent
compel in you, scamp, such offensive
trampling of my name behind my back
—too bad then the misery of your misfortune:
ankles tugged till peephole’s pried and propped with
radishes and goatfish crammèd in to boot!
Divertimenti
Aged Ol’ Lagavulin’s garçon,
plash me extra-potent tumblers-full
as you’re instructed by Mrs. Boston,
who’s juiced-up big on some juicy syrup.
Wh’rever you like, get ye gone, water,
the bane of scotch, and with the sober-headed
scram! Here the Thyonian’s ’s none diluted!
Am more than pleased if, my ladylove,
my charming & my only heart’s delight,
you’d bid come wake up from my afternooner.
And if you could (which would be of assistance)
bid nobody closes shut the entrance;