Catullus 50

Gaius Valerius Catullus

Translated from the Latin

In memory of Alistair Elliot (1932-2018),poet and translator

Licinius, yesterday at ease(as suited hedonists like us),we played around a lot on mytablets, with each of us writingshort verses, playing metre gamesin turn, both full of jokes and wine.I left there fired, Licinius,by so much of your charm and witthat in my wretched state no foodagreed with me, no sleep at nightwould close my eyes, but, uncontrolledin frenzy, on my bed I tossedand turned, craving a sight of dawnto speak and be with you again.But as my limbs, tired by their toil,lay half-dead on my little bed,I wrote for you, my cheerful friend,this poem, from which to see my pain.Now don’t take risks, don’t spurn my plea,I beg you, apple of my eye,lest Nemesis demand revenge—a violent god: do not hurt her.

L

Hesterno, Licini, die otiosi(ut conuenerat esse delicatos) 3multum lusimus in meis tabellis, 2scribens uersiculos uterque nostrumludebat numero modo hoc modo illoc,reddens mutua per iocum atque uinum.Atque illinc abii tuo leporeincensus, Licini, facetiisque,ut nec me miserum cibus iuuaretnec somnus tegeret quiete ocellos,sed toto indomitus furore lectouersarer, cupiens uidere lucem,ut tecum loquerer simulque ut essem.At defessa labore membra postquamsemimortua lectulo iacebant,hoc, iucunde, tibi poema feci,ex quo perspiceres meum dolorem.Nunc audax caue sis, precesque nostras,oramus, caue despuas, ocelle,ne poenas Nemesis reposcat a te.Est uemens dea: laedere hanc caueto.

Feature Date

November 27, 2020

Series

Translation

Selected By

Share This Poem

Print This Poem

Translation © 2020 by A.J. Woodman
All rights reserved.
Reproduced by Poetry Daily with permission.

Featured Poet

Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84-c. 54 BCE), from a wealthy family in Verona, is known for his poems that combine erudite literary allusions with lyrical love poems, chatty and amusing poems to and about his friends and acquaintances, and abusive, often obscene, satirical poems about political enemies, rivals in love, and anyone he disliked. His most famous poems chronicle the ups and downs of an unhappy love affair with a married woman he refers to as Lesbia.

(Bio by Susan McLean)

Featured Translator

Tony Woodman, Basil L. Gildersleeve Professor of Classics Emeritus at the University of Virginia and Emeritus Professor of Latin at Durham University, is currently Visiting Professor at Newcastle University.

He is author or co-author of Cambridge commentaries on the Roman historians Velleius Paterculus (1977, 1983) and Tacitus, Annals Books 3 (1996), 4 (1989, 2018), 5–6 (2016), and Agricola (2014). He has edited or co-edited Catullus: Poems, Books, Readers (2012), Word and Context in Latin Poetry (2017) and The Cambridge Companion to Catullus (forthcoming 2021), among many other works.

He has recently completed a commentary on Horace, Odes Book 3, for the series Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics and is preparing a new edition of Tacitus’ Annals for the series Oxford Classical Texts.

Buy This Book

Ancient Exchanges

Fall 2020 | Departures

Iowa City, Iowa

The University of Iowa

Editor
Adrienne K.H. Rose

Managing Editor
Laura Moser

Featured journal

Ancient Exchanges is an online journal devoted to literary translations of ancient texts. We are at once Exchanges’ younger sister and its centuries-old ancestral kin. Founded in Fall of 2019 by Adrienne Rose in collaboration with Aron Aji, the journal is supported by the University of Iowa’s Department of Classics and MFA program in Literary Translation.

Ancient Exchanges is an intervention born in response to the experiences of exclusion, limitation, and gatekeeping within the field of Classics. In contrast with the historically narrow perspectives of our field, we envision Ancient Exchanges as a journal with a global perspective.

We hope Ancient Exchanges will transform the ways in which we read, teach, and find meaning in ancient literature through the means of translation. With a global scope, we seek to publish works that engage antiquity in ways that challenge traditional beliefs about what areas of study are valued as classics, including who gets to study and translate them. We hope Ancient Exchanges will appeal to emerging translators as a venue from which to sound their voices, and we particularly welcome submissions from people with identities that are underrepresented in Classics, including BIPOC and LGBTQ+ translators, and those working outside of academia.

Poetry Daily Depends on You

With your support, we make reading the best contemporary poetry a treasured daily experience. Consider a contribution today.