„Ich liebe und hasse zugleich. Wie das möglich ist, fragst Du? // Ich weiß nicht wie, doch ich fühle es mit höllischer Qual.“
— Catull
Gedichte Catulls (Carmina Catulli), Gedicht 85
Zitate von Catull
6 2
Catull
Geburtstag: 84 v.Chr
Todesdatum: 54 v.Chr
Andere Namen: Catullus, Catullus Gaius Valerius, Гай Валерий Катулл
Gaius Valerius Catullus war ein römischer Dichter des 1. Jahrhunderts v. Chr. Er stammte aus Verona. Catull gehörte zum Kreis der Neoteriker und orientierte sich wie diese vor allem an dem berühmten hellenistischen Dichter Kallimachos. Aber auch die griechische Dichterin Sappho hatte einen großen Einfluss auf ihn. Seine carmina wurden unter anderem von Carl Orff vertont.
Photo: Schorle, Own work / CC BY-SA 3.0
Zitate Catull
„Was eine Frau dem begehrenden Geliebten sagt, ist wie in Wind und reißendes Wasser geschrieben.“
— Catull
Gedichte Catulls (Carmina Catulli), Gedicht 70,3-4
„Nichts ist alberner als albernes Lachen.“
— Catull
Gedichte Catulls (Carmina Catulli), Gedicht 39,16; an Egnatius
„Der ehrbare Dichter muss keusch sein, seine Verse jedoch nicht.“
— Catull
Gedichte Catulls (Carmina Catulli), Gedicht 16,5-6; an Aurelius und Furius
„Was können die Götter besseres geben als eine glückliche Stunde?“
— Catull
Gedichte Catulls (Carmina Catulli), Gedicht 62,30; hexametrisches Hochzeitsgedicht
„Eine Liebe, die seit langem besteht, gibt man nicht leicht auf.“
— Catull
Gedichte Catulls (Carmina Catulli), Gedicht 76,13; an die Götter
„Idleness ere now has ruined both kings and wealthy cities.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LI, last lines
Carmina
Original: (la) Otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
„Suns may set and rise again. For us, when the short light has once set, remains to be slept the sleep of one unbroken night.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
V, lines 1–6
Thomas Campion's translation:
My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love;
And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,
Let us not weigh them: Heaven's great lamps do dive
Into their west, and straight again revive,
But, soon as once set is our little light,
Then must we sleep one ever-during night.
From A Book of Airs (1601)
Carmina
Original: (la) Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus<br/>rumoresque senum severiorum<br/>omnes unius aestimemus assis
soles occidere et redire possunt:
nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,
nox est perpetua una dormienda.
Kontext: Let us live, my Lesbia, and love, and value at one farthing all the talk of crabbed old men. Suns may set and rise again. For us, when the short light has once set, remains to be slept the sleep of one unbroken night.
„If I have led a pure life.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXXVI, line 19
Carmina
Original: (la) Si vitam puriter egi.
„Now he goes along the dark road, thither whence they say no one returns.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
III, lines 11–12
Carmina
Original: (la) Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum
illuc, unde negant redire quemquam.
„Leave off wishing to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking that anyone can ever become grateful.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXXIII, lines 1–2
Carmina
Original: (la) Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri,
Aut aliquem fieri posse putare pium.
„What he himself is, whether he is or is not, he does not know so much as this.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
XVII, line 22
Carmina
Original: (la) Ipse qui sit, utrum sit an non sit, id quoque nescit.
„You ask how many kissings of you, Lesbia, are enough for me and more than enough?“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
VII, lines 1–2
Carmina
Original: (la) Quaeris, quot mihi basiationes
tuae, Lesbia, sint satis superque?
„If anything ever happened to any one who eagerly longed and never hoped, that is a true pleasure to the mind.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
CVII, lines 1–2
Carmina
Original: (la) Si quicquam cupido optantique optigit umquam
insperanti, hoc est gratum animo proprie.
„Henceforth let no woman believe a man's oath, let none believe that a man's speeches can be trustworthy. They, while their mind desires something and longs eagerly to gain it, nothing fear to swear, nothing spare to promise; but as soon as the lust of their greedy mind is satisfied, they fear not then their words, they heed not their perjuries.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXIV
Carmina
Original: (la) Nunc iam nulla viro iuranti femina credat,
nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles;
quis dum aliquid cupiens animus praegestit apisci,
nil metuunt iurare, nihil promittere parcunt:
sed simul ac cupidae mentis satiata libido est,
dicta nihil metuere, nihil periuria curant.
„Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred, then yet another thousand, then a hundred.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
V, lines 8–7
Carmina
Original: (la) Da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.
„What a woman says to her ardent lover should be written in wind and running water.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.
LXX, lines 3–4. Compare Keats' epitaph: "Here lies one whose name was writ in water."
Carmina
Original: (la) Mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.
„There is nothing more silly than a silly laugh.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
XXXIX, line 16
Carmina
Original: (la) Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est.
„Mourn, ye Graces and Loves, and all you whom the Graces love. My lady's sparrow is dead, the sparrow my lady's pet, whom she loved more than her own eyes.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
III, lines 1–4
Lord Byron's translation:
Ye Cupids, droop each little head,
Nor let your wings with joy be spread:
My Lesbia's favourite bird is dead,
Whom dearer than her eyes she loved.
Carmina
Original: (la) Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque,
Et quantum est hominum venustiorum.
Passer mortuus est meae puellae,
Passer, deliciae meae puellae.
„I hate and love. Why I do so, perhaps you ask. I know not, but I feel it, and I am in torment.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
LXXXV, lines 1–2
Carmina
Original: (la) Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
