Carmina of Catullus (eBook)

LV.  OF HIS FRIEND CAMERIUS.

We pray, an' haply irk it not when prayed,

Show us where shadowed hidest thou in shade!

Thee throughout Campus Minor sought we all,

Thee in the Circus, thee in each bookstall,

Thee in Almighty Jove's fane consecrate.                       5

Nor less in promenade titled from The Great

(Friend!) I accosted each and every quean,

But mostly madams showing mien serene,

For thee I pestered all with many pleas--

"Give me Camérius, wanton baggages!"                          10

Till answered certain one a-baring breasts

"Lo, 'twixt these rosy paps he haply rests!"

But now to find thee were Herculean feat.                     13

Not if I feignèd me that guard of Crete,                      23

Not if with Pegasèan wing I sped,

Or Ladas I or Perseus plumiped,                               25

Or Rhesus borne in swifty car snow-white:

Add the twain foot-bewing'd and fast of flight,

And of the cursive winds require the blow:

All these (Camérius!) couldst on me bestow.

Tho' were I wearied to each marrow bone                       30

And by many o' languors clean forgone

Yet I to seek thee (friend!) would still assay.               32

In such proud lodging (friend) wouldst self denay?            14

Tell us where haply dwell'st thou, speak outright,

Be bold and risk it, trusting truth to light,

Say do these milk-white girls thy steps detain?

If aye in tight-sealed lips thy tongue remain,

All Amor's fruitage thou shalt cast away:

Verbose is Venus, loving verbal play!                         20

But, an it please thee, padlockt palate bear,

So in your friendship I have partner-share.

We beg, if maybe 'tis not untoward, thou'lt shew us where may be thine

haunt sequestered. Thee did we quest within the Lesser Fields, thee in the

Circus, thee in every bookshop, thee in holy fane of highmost Jove. In

promenade yclept "The Great," the crowd of cocottes straightway did I stop,

O friend, accosting those whose looks I noted were unruffled. And for thee

loudly did I clamour, "Restore to me Camerius, most giddy girls." Quoth

such-an-one, her bosom bare a-shewing, "Look! 'twixt rose-red paps he

shelters him." But labour 'tis of Hercules thee now to find. Not were I

framed the Cretan guard, nor did I move with Pegasean wing, nor were I

Ladas, or Persius with the flying foot, or Rhesus with swift and snowy

team: to these add thou the feathery-footed and winged ones, ask likewise

fleetness of the winds: which all united, O Camerius, couldst thou me

grant, yet exhausted in mine every marrow and with many a faintness

consumed should I be in my quest for thee, O friend. Why withdraw thyself

in so much pride, O friend? Tell us where thou wilt be found, declare it

boldly, give up the secret, trust it to the light. What, do the milk-white

maidens hold thee? If thou dost hold thy tongue closed up in mouth, thou

squanderest Love's every fruit: for Venus joys in many-worded babblings.

Yet if thou wishest, thou mayst bar thy palate, if I may be a sharer in thy

love.

LVI.

Orem ridiculam, Cato, et iocosam

Dignamque auribus et tuo cachinno.

Ride, quidquid amas, Cato, Catullum:

Res est ridicula et nimis iocosa.

Deprendi modo pupulum puellae                                  5

Trusantem: hunc ego, si placet Dionae,

Protelo rigida mea cecidi.

LVI.  TO CATO, DESCRIBING A "BLACK JOKER."

O risible matter (Cato!) and jocose,

Digne of thy hearing, of thy sneering digne.

Laugh (Cato!) an thou love Catullus thine;

The thing is risible, nay, too jocose.

Erstwhile I came upon a lad who a lass                         5

Was ---- and (so please it Dion!) I

Pierced him with stiffest staff and did him die.

O thing ridiculous, Cato, and facetious, and worthy of thine ears and of

thy laughter. Laugh, Cato, the more thou lovest Catullus: the thing is

ridiculous, and beyond measure facetious. Just now I caught a boy

a-thrusting in a girl: and on him (so please you, Dione) with rigid spear

of mine I fell.

LVII.

Pulcre convenit inprobis cinaedis,

Mamurrae pathicoque Caesarique.

Nec mirum: maculae pares utrisque,

Vrbana altera et illa Formiana,

Inpressae resident nec eluentur:                               5

Morbosi pariter, gemelli utrique

Vno in lectulo, erudituli ambo,

Non hic quam ille magis vorax adulter,

Rivales sociei puellularum.

Pulcre convenit inprobis cinaedis.                            10

LVII.  ON MAMURRA AND JULIUS CÆSAR.

Right well are paired these Cinaedes sans shame

Mamurra and Cæsar, both of pathic fame.

No wonder! Both are fouled with foulest blight,

One urban being, Formian t'other wight,

And deeply printed with indelible stain:                       5

Morbose is either, and the twin-like twain

Share single Couchlet; peers in shallow lore,

Nor this nor that for lechery hungers more,

As rival wenchers who the maidens claim

Right well are paired these Cinaedes sans shame.              10

A comely couple of shameless catamites, Mamurra and Caesar, pathics both.

Nor needs amaze: they share like stains--this, Urban, the other,

Formian,--which stay deep-marked nor can they be got rid of. Both morbidly

diseased through pathic vice, the pair of twins lie in one bed, alike in

erudition, one not more than other the greater greedier adulterer, allied

rivals of the girls. A comely couple of shameless catamites.

LVIII.

Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa,

Illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam

Plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes,

Nunc in quadriviis et angiportis

Glubit magnanimos Remi nepotes.                                5

LVIII.  ON LESBIA WHO ENDED BADLY.

Cælius! That Lesbia of ours, that Lesbia,

That only Lesbia by Catullus loved,

Than self, far fondlier, than all his friends,

She now where four roads fork, and wind the wynds

Husks the high-minded scions Remus-sprung.                     5

O Caelius, our Lesbia, that Lesbia, the self-same Lesbia whom Catullus more

than himself and all his own did worship, now at cross-roads and in alleys

husks off the mettlesome descendants of Remus.

LVIIII.

Bononiensis Rufa Rufulum fellat,

Vxor Meneni, saepe quam in sepulcretis

Vidistis ipso rapere de rogo cenam,

Cum devolutum ex igne prosequens panem

Ab semiraso tunderetur ustore.                                 5

LVIIII.  ON RUFA.

Rúfa the Bolognese drains Rufule dry,

(Wife to Menenius) she 'mid tombs you'll spy,

The same a-snatching supper from the pyre

Following the bread-loaves rolling forth the fire

Till frapped by half-shaved body-burner's ire.                ...