„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
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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.
Ähnliche Autoren
Augustus6
römischer KaiserPublilius Syrus24
römischer MimendichterZitate 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
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„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
Otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
LI, last lines
„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
Context: 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.
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)
„It is difficult suddenly to lay aside a long-standing love.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo
Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem.
LXXVI, line 13
„To this point is my mind reduced by your fault, Lesbia, and has so ruined itself by its own devotion, that now it can neither wish you well though you should become the best of women, nor cease to love you though you do the worst that can be done.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo
Huc est mens deducta tua mea, Lesbia, culpa
atque ita se officio perdidit ipsa suo,
ut iam nec bene velle queat tibi, si optima fias,
nec desistere amare, omnia si facias.
LXXV, lines 1–4
„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
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.
LXIV
„As a flower springs up secretly in a fenced garden, unknown to the cattle, torn up by no plough, which the winds caress, the sun strengthens, the shower draws forth, many boys, many girls, desire it.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo
Ut flos in saeptis secretus nascitur hortis,
Ignotus pecori, nullo contusus aratro,
Quem mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber;
Multi illum pueri, multae optavere puellae.
LXII
„He seems to me to be equal to a god, he, if it may be, seems to surpass the very gods, who sitting opposite thee again and again gazes at thee and hears thee sweetly laughing.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo
Ille mi par esse Deo videtur,
ille, si fas est, superare Divos,
qui sedens adversus identidem te
spectat et audit
dulce ridentem.
LI, lines 1–5. Cf. Sappho 31.
„Ah, what is more blessed than to put cares away, when the mind lays by its burden, and tired with labour of far travel we have come to our own home and rest on the couch we longed for? This it is which alone is worth all these toils.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo
O quid solutis est beatius curis,
cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,
desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?
hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.
XXXI, lines 7–11
„You ask how many kissings of you, Lesbia, are enough for me and more than enough?“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo
Quaeris, quot mihi basiationes
tuae, Lesbia, sint satis superque?
VII, lines 1–2
„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
Da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.
V, lines 8–7
