„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. Wikipedia
Photo: Schorle, Own work / CC BY-SA 3.0
Zitate Catull
„Der ehrbare Dichter muss keusch sein, seine Verse jedoch nicht.“
— Catull
Gedichte Catulls (Carmina Catulli), Gedicht 16,5-6; an Aurelius und Furius
„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
„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.
„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.
„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.
„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.
„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, list of poems by Catullus
LXXV, lines 1–4
Carmina
Original: (la) 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.
„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, list of poems by Catullus
LXII
Carmina
Original: (la) 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.
„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.
„If a man can take any pleasure in recalling the thought of kindnesses done.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXXVI, lines 1–2
Carmina
Original: (la) Siqua recordanti benefacta priora voluptas
Est homini.
„To whom am I to present my pretty new book, freshly smoothed off with dry pumice stone?“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
I, lines 1–2
Carmina
Original: (la) Cui dono lepidum novum libellum
Arido modo pumice expolitum?
„It is difficult suddenly to lay aside a long-standing love.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXXVI, line 13
Carmina
Original: (la) Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem.
„Wandering through many countries and over many seas I come, my brother, to these sorrowful obsequies, to present you with the last guerdon of death, and speak, though in vain, to your silent ashes, since fortune has taken your own self away from me—alas, my brother, so cruelly torn from me! Yet now meanwhile take these offerings, which by the custom of our fathers have been handed down—a sorrowful tribute—for a funeral sacrifice; take them, wet with many tears of a brother, and for ever, my brother, hail and farewell!“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
CI, lines 1–10
Sir William Marris's translation:
By many lands and over many a wave
I come, my brother, to your piteous grave,
To bring you the last offering in death
And o'er dumb dust expend an idle breath;
For fate has torn your living self from me,
And snatched you, brother, O, how cruelly!
Yet take these gifts, brought as our fathers bade
For sorrow's tribute to the passing shade;
A brother's tears have wet them o'er and o'er;
And so, my brother, hail, and farewell evermore!
Carmina
Original: (la) Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
Advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
Nunc tamen interea haec prisco quae more parentum
Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
„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.
„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.
