„If I have led a pure life.“
Si vitam puriter egi.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXXVI, line 19
Carmina
Zitate Catull
„Now he goes along the dark road, thither whence they say no one returns.“
Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum
illuc, unde negant redire quemquam.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
III, lines 11–12
Carmina
„Leave off wishing to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking that anyone can ever become grateful.“
Desine de quoquam quicquam bene velle mereri,
Aut aliquem fieri posse putare pium.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXXIII, lines 1–2
Carmina
„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!“
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.
— 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
„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.“
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.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
XXXI, lines 7–11
Carmina
„To whom am I to present my pretty new book, freshly smoothed off with dry pumice stone?“
Cui dono lepidum novum libellum
Arido modo pumice expolitum?
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
I, lines 1–2
Carmina
„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.“
Lugete, O Veneres Cupidinesque,
Et quantum est hominum venustiorum.
Passer mortuus est meae puellae,
Passer, deliciae meae puellae.
— 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
„Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred, then yet another thousand, then a hundred.“
Da mi basia mille, deinde centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
V, lines 8–7
Carmina
„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.“
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.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
LXII
Carmina
„What he himself is, whether he is or is not, he does not know so much as this.“
Ipse qui sit, utrum sit an non sit, id quoque nescit.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
XVII, line 22
Carmina
„Over head and heels.“
Per caputque pedesque.
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
XVII, line 9
Carmina
