Carmina

Perseus Latin · Perseus Latin · 544 sections

92.1
Lesbia forever speaks ill of me nor is ever silent about me: I’ll be damned if Lesbia doesn’t love me! By what sign? because mine are just the same: I exsecrate her constantly, yet may I be damned if I do not love her in sober truth.
93.1
I am not over anxious, Caesar, to please you greatly, or to know whether you are a white or a black man.
94.1
Mentula fornicates. Of course a mentule fornicates! This is what they say—the pot itself gathers the vegetables.
95.1
My Cinna’s Zmyrna finally, after the ninth harvest it was begun, and after the ninth winter it was published, when Hortensius meanwhile five hundred thousand [lines] in one [year]
95.5
Zmyrna will be sent to the curving waves of innermost Satrachus, hoary ages will roll out Zmyrna long hence. But Volusius’ Annals will die at Padua itself, and will often furnish loose wrappings for mackerel. May the short works of my comrade remain in my heart;
95.10
as for the people, let them rejoice in bloated Antimachus.
96.1
Calvus, if anything pleasing or welcome from our grief can have an effect on silent graves, then with its longing we renew old loves and weep friendships once lost,
96.5
surely Quintilia does not mourn her premature death as much as she rejoices in your love.
97.1
So may the Gods love me, I did not think it made any difference whether I smelled Aemilius’ mouth or his arse. In no respect is the latter cleaner, the former filthier; as a matter of fact, his backside is cleaner and better—
97.5
for it comes without teeth. His mouth has teeth a foot and a half long, gums truly like an old wagon-box, and besides, he usually has a maw like the split twat of a she-mule pissing in the summer heat. This man has sex with many girls, and makes himself out to be charming,
97.10
and is not condemned to the mill [to drive] the mule? Any girl who would touch him we would think could lick the arse of a diseased hangman.
98.1
What can be said to you, if to anyone, stinking Victius, is said to wind bags and fools. For with that tongue, if the occasion should arise, you could lick arses and farmers’ boots.
98.5
If you want to destroy us altogether, Victius, yawn: you will accomplish what you want altogether.
99.1
I stole from you, while you were playing, honeyed Juventius, a kiss sweeter than sweet ambrosia. But I bore it off not unpunished; for more than an hour I remember I was nailed to the top of a cross,
99.5
while I purged myself [for my crime] to you, nor could any tears in the least remove your cruelty. For as soon as it was done, you washed your lips with many drops, and wiped them off with every finger, lest anything contracted from our mouth remain,
99.10
as though it were the filthy spittle of a piss-wet whore. Besides, you have handed wretched me over to spiteful Love, nor have you ceased to torture me in every way, so that for me that kiss is now changed from ambrosia to be harsher than harsh hellebore.
99.15
Since you award such punishment to wretched lover, never more after this will I steal kisses.
100.1
Caelius and Quintius, the flower of the Veronese youth, madly in love with Aufilenus, madly in love with Aufilena—the one with the brother; the other with the sister. This is, as one would say, true brotherhood and sweet friendship.
100.5
To whom shall I incline the more? Caelius, to you; for your single devotion to us was shown by its deeds, when the raging flame scorched my marrow. Be happy, Caelius, be potent in love.
101.1
Through many nations and through many seas borne, I come, brother, for these sad funeral rites, that I may give the last gifts to the dead, and may vainly speak to your silent ashes,
101.5
since fortune has taken yourself away from me. Ah, poor brother, undeservedly snatched from me. But now receive these gifts, which have been handed down in the ancient manner of ancestors, the sad gifts to the grave, drenched with a brother’s tears,
101.10
and for ever, brother, hail and farewell.
102.1
If anything was entrusted in a pledge of silence by a friend whose inmost loyalty of spirit is known, you will find that I am one of those rightfully devoted, Cornelius, and think that I have become a Harpocrates.
103.1
Come, Silo, either return me my ten thousand sesterces, and then be to your content surly and boorish: or, if you like the money, please stop being a pimp—and being surly and boorish.
104.1
Do you believe that I could curse my life, she who is dearer to me than are both my eyes? I could not, nor if I could, would my love be so desperate: but you and Tappo make a monstrosity out of everything.
105.1
Mentula tries to climb Mount Pimpla: the Muses with their forks chuck him headlong down.
106.1
When you see an auctioneer with a comely lad, what do believe other than that he longs to sell himself?
107.1
If ever something happens that you long for and want and is unhoped for, this is genuinely pleasing to the soul. And thus is it pleasing to us and far dearer than gold, that you have returned, Lesbia, to longing me,
107.5
you have returned to me, longing and without hope, you brought yourself back to us. O day of whiter note! Who lives more happily than I alone, or who can name things greater to be wished for in this life?
108.1
If, Cominius, by the judgment of the people your white hair made filthy by unclean practices should perish, to be sure I do not doubt that first your tongue, hostile to goodness, cut out, will be given to the greedy vulture,
108.5
the crow will gorge your eyes, gouged out, down his black throat, the dogs will gorge down your entrails, the wolves your remaining members.
109.1
My life, you declare to me that this love of ours will be an everlasting joy between us. Great Gods! grant that she may promise truly, and say this in sincerity and from her soul,
109.5
and that through all our lives we may be allowed to prolong together this bond of holy friendship.
110.1
Aufilena, good professional girls are always praised: they receive their pay for what they intend to do. Because you promised me—which was a lie—you are unprofessional; because you do not give and often bring [home the pay], you do wrong.
110.5
Either to do it is honest, or not to have promised was chaste, Aufilena: but to steal what was given by deceiving, proves you worse than the greedy whore who prostitutes herself with her whole body.
111.1
Aufilena, that a bride live content in her husband alone is praise of exceptional praise: but it is preferable to lie beneath any lover you choose, rather than as mother to bring forth brothers [cousins] out of your uncle.
112.1
He is a lot of man, Naso, and he who descends with you is not a lot of man: Naso you are a lot—and sexually submissive.
113.1
In the first consulate of Pompey, Cinna, two used to frequent Mucilla: now again made consul, the two remain, but to each one has accrued a thousand. The seed of adultery is fruitful.
114.1
With his estate not falsely is Mentula of Firmum said to be rich, which has everything in it of such excellence, game preserves of every kind, fish, meadows, plowland and beasts. In vain: the yield is overcome by the expense.
114.5
Therefore I grant that he is rich, while everything is lacking. Let us praise the estate, while its owner is a needy man.
115.1
Mentula has something like thirty acres of meadow land, forty under cultivation: the rest are as the sea. Why can he not surpass Croesus in wealth, he who in one estate possesses so much?
115.5
Meadow, arable land, immense woods, and open fields and marshes, even to the uttermost north and to the Ocean sea! All things great are here, yet is the owner most great beyond all; not a man, but in truth a mentule mighty, menacing!
116.1
Often seeking, my mind hunting how I could send to studious you the poems of Battiades, whereby I might soften you towards us, and you might not try to send hostile weapons at my head all the time—
116.5
I see now that this effort was undertaken by me in vain, Gellius, and that our prayers to this end were of no avail. Your weapons against us we will ward off with our cloak; but, transfixed with ours, you will pay the punishment.

Perseus Latin. CTS URN phi0472.phi001.perseus-eng4. Via the Perseus Digital Library / Open Greek and Latin TEI corpora. Licence: Available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Source.