LPC: Lesson - Reading Catullus in Translation

Reading Catullus in Translation

As mentioned previously, we will not be reading a broad collection of Catullus' poetry. Unfortunately, Catullus tends to wander into inappropriate content quite regularly, so any full reading of his poems in translations would necessitate providing students with material that is not school appropriate. Instead, a sampling of poems in different meters will be presented below, so you can get an idea of Catullus' style of writing. All translations are courtesy of A.S. Kline, who publishes translations online through Poetry in Translation Links to an external site., allowing anyone to use his translations (he has generously published these translations with open access).

Hendecasyllabic Poems

**A Sample of Catullus' Hendecasyllabic Poems**
Latin Text	Translation
Poem 1 Cui dono lepidum novum libellum arida modo pumice expolitum? Corneli, tibi: namque tu solebas meas esse aliquid putare nugas. Iam tum, cum ausus es unus Italorum omne aevum tribus explicare cartis... Doctis, Iuppiter, et laboriosis! Quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli— qualecumque, quod, o patrona virgo, plus uno maneat perenne saeclo!	Poem 1 To whom do I send this fresh little book of wit, just polished off with dry pumice? To you, Cornelius: since you were accustomed to consider my trifles worth something even then, when you alone of Italians dared to explain all the ages, in three learned works, by Jupiter, and with the greatest labour. Then take this little book for your own: whatever it is, and is worth: virgin Muse, patroness, let it last, for more lives than one.
Poem 26 Furi, villula vestra non ad Austriflatus opposita est neque ad Favoni nec saevi Boreae aut Apheliotae, verum ad milia quindecim et ducentos. O ventum horribilem atque pestilentem!	Poem 26 - This poem shows off a bit of Catullus' wit. Furius, your little villa’s not exposed to the southerlies, or the westerlies, the savage north-wind, or the easterly breeze, but truly to fifteen thousand two hundred cash. O terrifying and destructive wind!
Poem 43 Salve, nec minimo puella naso nec bello pede nec nigris ocellis nec longis digitis nec ore sicco nec sane nimis elegante lingua. Decoctoris amica Formiani, ten provincia narrat esse bellam? Tecum Lesbia nostra comparatur? O saeclum insapiens et infacetum!	Poem 43 Greetings, girl with a nose not the shortest, feet not so lovely, eyes not of the darkest, fingers not slender, mouth never healed, and a not excessively charming tongue, bankrupt Formianus’s ‘little friend’. And the Province pronounces you beautiful? To be compared to my Lesbia? O witless and ignorant age!

Poems written in Elegiac Couplets

Poem 85 translation by Michael Farmer (published via GaVS, with full permission granted to share the translation; 2021). All other translations courtesy of A.S. Kline, unless otherwise noted.

**A Sample of Catullus' Poems using Elegiac Couplets**
Latin Text	Translation
Poem 70 Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat. dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti, in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.	Poem 70 My girl says she’d rather marry no one but me, not even if Jupiter himself were to ask her. She says so: but what a girl says to her eager lover, should be written on the wind and in running water.
Poem 85* Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.	Poem 85 I hate and I love. Why should I have this conflict, you may ask. I really don't know, but I feel it happening and it is excruciating.

*Remember how it was mentioned that other poets echoed Catullus in their own, later poetry. Poem 85 was possibly written by Catullus as a translation of one of Sappho's poems, but it was also echoed by Martial, in poem 32:

Non amo te, Sabide, nec possum dicere quare.
Hoc tantum possum dicere: non amo te.

You, I don't love, Sabidius, nor can I say why.
I can only say this: I don't love you.

Other Meters

Catullus wrote in various lyrical meters, including Saphic and Alcaean, etc. He even has a longer poem written in dactylic hexameter (the first few lines are shared below).

**A Sample of Catullus' Poems in Other Meters**
Latin Text	Translation
Poem 62 (Lines 1-4) - Dactylic Hexameter Vesper adest, iuvenes, consurgite: Vesper Olympo exspectata diu vix tandem lumina tollit. surgere iam tempus, iam pinguis linquere mensas, iam veniet virgo, iam dicetur hymenaeus.	Poem 62 (lines 1-4) Evening is here, young men, arise: evening, awaited, so long by the heavens, barely still shows the light. Now is the time to rise, to leave the rich banquet, now the virgin comes, now the wedding-song is sung.
Poem 11 (lines 1-4) - Sapphic Stanza Furi et Aureli comites Catulli, sive in extremos penetrabit Indos, litus ut longe resonante Eoa tunditur unda,	Poem 11 (lines 1-4) Furius and Aurelius, you friends of Catullus, whether he penetrates farthest India, where the Eastern waves strike the shore with deep resonance,