My Translation Let us live, my Lesbia, let us love, and value the rumors of dour old men at just a single penny. The sun falls and rises again: but for us, once falls the paltry light, ours is a sleep that lasts forever. Give …
Read MoreCatullus: “The little bean of a boat”
Although there are different interpretations of this poem, I think it’s a parody of an epic, since this fit’s Catullus’s personality and it’s talking about the greatness of a little bean boat, from the time it was cut from the woods in Mount Cytorius to …
Read MoreCatullus’s girl and her poor sparrow
My Translation Mourn, oh Venuses and Cupids, and as for men, whoever kind remains: the sparrow is dead, my girl, the sparrow, delight of my girl, whom she loved more than her eyes themselves. For he was as sweet as honey and knew his mother …
Read MoreA fragment from Catullus
My Translation so pleasing to me, as it was for the girl holding the golden apple that freed her long ago from the girdle binding her for days on end. Original Latin tam gratum est mihi quam ferunt puellae pernici aureolum fuisse malum quod zonam …
Read MoreCatullus’s “Sparrow, delight of my girl”
My Translation Sparrow, delight of my girl, with whom she plays, whom her bosom holds, eager to give her first finger and usually keen to incite a bite, I was struggling with my desire dear, I do not know how to please you with my …
Read MoreCatullus’s dedicatory poem
Catullus’s (84 BC to 54 BC) dedicatory poem in the book that made him famous for thousands of years to follow, despite his short life. My Translation To whom is the gift of this elegant, little book, new and dryly polished of pumice? Cornelius, it …
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