Carmina

Perseus Latin · Perseus Latin · 2,080 sections

51.2
Nay passing Gods (and that can be!)
51.3
Who all the while sits facing thee
51.4
Sees thee and hears
51.5
Thy low sweet laughs which (ah me!) daze
51.6
Mine every sense, and as I gaze
51.7
Upon thee (Lesbia!) o’er me strays
51.9
My tongue is dulled, my limbs adown
51.10
Flows subtle flame; with sound its own
51.11
Rings either ear, and o’er are strown
51.12
Mine eyes with night.
51.13
Ease has thy lot, Catullus, crost,
51.14
Ease gladdens thee at heaviest cost,
51.15
Ease killed the Kings ere this and lost
51.16
the tallest towns.
52.1
What is’t, Catullus? Why delay to out die?
52.2
That Wen hight Nonius sits in curule chair,
52.3
For Consulship Vatinius false doth swear;
52.4
What is’t, Catullus? Why delay to out die?
53.1
I laughed at one ’mid Forum-crowd unknown
53.2
Who, when Vatinius’ crimes in wondrous way
53.3
Had by my Calvus been explained, exposed,
53.4
His hand upraising high admiring cried
53.5
Great Gods! the loquent little Doodle-diddle!
54.1
The head of Otho, puniest of pates
54.2
The rustic half-washt shanks of Nerius
54.3
And Libo’s subtle silent fizzling-farts.
54.4
I wish that leastwise these should breed disgust
54.5
In thee and old Fuficius, rogue twice-cookt.
54.6
Again at these mine innocent iamb-lines
54.7
Wi’ wrath be wrothest; unique Emperor!
55.1
We pray, an’ haply irk it not when prayed,
55.2
Show us where shadowed hidest thou in shade!
55.3
Thee throughout Campus Minor sought we all,
55.4
Thee in the Circus, thee in each bookstall,
55.5
Thee in Almighty Jove’s fane consecrate.
55.6
Nor less in promenade titled from The Great
55.7
(Friend!) I accosted each and every quean,
55.8
But mostly madams showing mien serene,
55.9
For thee I pestered all with many pleas—
55.10
Give me Camérius, wanton baggages!
55.11
Till answered certain one a-baring breasts
55.12
Lo, ’twixt these rosy paps he haply rests!
55.13
But now to find thee were Herculean feat.
55.23
Not if I feigned me that guard of Crete,
55.24
Not if with Pegasèan wing I sped,
55.25
Or Ladas I or Perseus plumiped,
55.26
Or Rhesus borne in swifty car snow-white:
55.27
Add the twain foot-bewing’d and fast of flight,
55.28
And of the cursive’ winds require the blow:
55.29
All these (Camérius!) couldst on me bestow.
55.30
Tho’ were I wearied to each marrow bone
55.31
And by many o’ languors clean forgone
55.32
Yet I to seek thee (friend!) would still assay.
55.14
In such proud lodging (friend) wouldst self denay?
55.15
Tell us where haply dwell’st thou, speak outright,
55.16
Be bold and risk it, trusting truth to light,
55.17
Say do these milk-white girls thy Steps detain?
55.18
If aye in tight-sealed lips thy tongue remain,
55.19
All Amor’s fruitage thou shalt cast away:
55.20
Verbose is Venus, loving verbal play!
55.21
But, an it please thee, padlockt palate bear,
55.22
So in your friendship I have partner-share.
56.1
O risible matter (Cato!) and jocose,
56.2
Digne of thy hearing, of thy sneering digne.
56.3
Laugh (Cato!) an thou love Catullus thine;
56.4
The thing is risible, nay, too jocose.
56.5
Erstwhile I came upon a lad who a lass
56.6
Was and (so please it Dion!) I
56.7
Pierced him with stiffest staff and did him die.
57.1
Right well are paired these Cinaedes sans shame
57.2
Mamurra and Caesar, both of pathic fame.
57.3
No wonder!Both are fouled with foulest blight,
57.4
One urban being, Formian t’other wight,
57.5
And deeply printed with indelible stain:
57.6
Morbose is either, and the twin-like twain
57.7
Share single Couchlet; peers in shallow lore,
57.8
Nor this nor that for lechery hungers more,
57.9
As rival wenchers who the maidens claim
57.10
Right well are paired these Cinaedes sans shame.
58.1
Caelius! That Lesbia of ours, that Lesbia,
58.2
That only Lesbia by Catullus loved,
58.3
Than self, far fondlier, than all his friends,
58.4
She now Where four roads fork, and wind the wynds
58.5
Husks the high-minded scions Remus-sprung.
59.1
Rufa the Bolognese drains Rufule dry,
59.2
(Wife to Menenius) she ’mid tombs you’ll spy,
59.3
The same a-snatching supper from the pyre
59.4
Following the bread-loaves rolling forth the fire
59.5
Till frapped by half-shaved body-burner’s ire.
60.1
Bare thee some lioness wild in Lybian wold?
60.2
Or Scylla barking from low’st inguinal fold?
60.3
With so black spirit, of so dure a mould,
60.4
E’en voice of suppliant must thou disregard
60.5
In latest circumstance ah, heart o’er hard?
61.1
Of Helicon-hill, O Thou that be
61.2
Haunter, Urania’s progeny,
61.3
Who hurriest soft virginity
61.4
To man, O Hymenaeus Hymen,
61.5
O Hymen Hymenaeus.
61.6
About thy temples bind the bloom,

Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0472.phi001.perseus-eng3. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.