The Poems and Fragments of Catullus Part 2

So, whatever is yours to tell or ill or 15 Good, confess it. A witty verse awaits thee And thy lady, to place ye both in heaven.

VII.

Ask me, Lesbia, what the sum delightful Of thy kisses, enough to charm, to tire me?

Mult.i.tudinous as the grains on even Lybian sands aromatic of Cyrene;

'Twixt Jove's oracle in the sandy desert 5 And where royally Battus old reposeth;

Yea a company vast as in the silence Stars which stealthily gaze on happy lovers;

E'en so many the kisses I to kiss thee Count, wild lover, enough to charm, to tire me; 10

These no curious eye can wholly number, Tongue of jealousy ne'er bewitch nor harm them.

VIII.

Ah poor Catullus, learn to play the fool no more.

Lost is the lost, thou know'st it, and the past is past.

Bright once the days and sunny shone the light on thee, Still ever hasting where she led, the maid so fair, By me belov'd as maiden is belov'd no more. 5

Was then enacting all the merry mirth wherein Thyself delighted, and the maid she said not nay.

Ah truly bright and sunny shone the days on thee.

Now she resigns thee; child, do thou resign no less, Nor follow her that flies thee, or to bide in woe 10 Consent, but harden all thy heart, resolve, endure.

Farewell, my love. Catullus is resolv'd, endures, He will not ask for pity, will not importune.

But thou'lt be mourning thus to pine unask'd alway.

O past retrieval faithless! Ah what hours are thine! 15 When comes a likely wooer? who protests thou'rt fair?

Who brooks to love thee? who decrees to live thine own?

Whose kiss delights thee? whose the lips that own thy bite?

Yet, yet, Catullus, learn to bear, resolve, endure.

IX.

Dear Veranius, you of all my comrades Worth, you only, a many goodly thousands,

Speak they truly that you your hearth revisit, Brothers duteous, homely mother aged?

Yes, believe them. O happy news, Catullus! 5

I shall see him alive, alive shall hear him, Tribes Iberian, uses, haunts, declaring

As his wont is; on him my neck reclining Kiss his flowery face, his eyes delightful.

Now, all men that have any mirth about you, 10 Know ye happier any, any blither?

X.

In the Forum as I was idly roaming Varus took me a merry dame to visit.

She a lady, methought upon the moment, Of some quality, not without refinement.

1.

So, arrived, in a trice we fell on endless 5 Themes colloquial; how the fact, the falsehood With Bithynia, what the case about it, Had it helped me to profit or to money.

Then I told her a very truth; no atom There for company, praetor, hungry natives, 10 Home might render a body aught the fatter:

Then our praetor a castaway, could hugely Mulct his company, had a taste to jeer them.

2.

Spoke another, 'Yet anyways, to bear you Men were ready, enough to grace a litter. 15 They grow quant.i.ties, if report belies not.'

Then supremely myself to flaunt before her,

I 'So thoroughly could not angry fortune Spite, I might not, afflicted in my province, Get erected a l.u.s.ty eight to bear me. 20

But so scrubby the poor sedan, the batter'd Frame-work, n.o.body there nor here could ever Lift it, painfully neck to nick adjusting.'

3.

Quoth the lady, belike a lady wanton, 'Just for courtesy, lend me, dear Catullus, 25 Those same n.o.bodies. I the great Sarapis Go to visit awhile.' Said I in answer,

'Thanks; but, lady, for all my easy boasting, 'Twas too summary; there's a friend who knows me, Cinna Gaius, his the st.u.r.dy bearers. 30

'Mine or Cinna's, an inch alone divides us, I use Cinna's, as e'en my own possession.

But you're really a bore, a very tiresome Dame unmannerly, thus to take me napping.'

XI.

Furius and Aurelius, O my comrades, Whether your Catullus attain to farthest Ind, the long sh.o.r.e lash'd by reverberating Surges Eoan; Hyrcan or luxurious horde Arabian, 5 Sacan or grim Parthian arrow-bearer, Fields the rich Nile discolorates, a seven-fold River abounding; Whether o'er high Alps he afoot ascending Track the long records of a mighty Caesar, 10 Rhene, the Gauls' deep river, a lonely Britain Dismal in ocean; This, or aught else haply the G.o.ds determine, Absolute, you, with me in all to part not; Bid my love greet, bear her a little errand, 15 Scarcely of honour.

Say 'Live on yet, still given o'er to nameless Lords, within one bosom, a many wooers, Clasp'd, as unlov'd each, so in hourly change all Lewdly disabled. 20 'Think not henceforth, thou, to recal Catullus'

Love; thy own sin slew it, as on the meadow's Verge declines, ungently beneath the plough-share Stricken, a flower.'

XII.

Marrucinian Asinius, hardly civil Left-hand practices o'er the merry wine-cup.

Watch occasion, anon remove the napkin.

Call this drollery? Trust me, friend, it is not.