< The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus

Text & Translation

Meter - Hendecasyllabic

LineLatin TextEnglish Translation
1 Flavi, delicias tuas Catullo, Flavius, about your darling to Catullus
2 ni sint illepidae atque inelegantes, unless she is uncharming or inelegant,
3 velles dicere, nec tacere posses. you would want to speak, nor would you be able to stay silent.
4 Verum nescio quid febriculosi But you single out I don't know what sort
5 scorti diligis: hoc pudet fateri. of feverish whore: it shames you to confess this thing.
6 Nam te non viduas iacere noctes For the couch, vainly tacet, proclaims
7 nequiquam tacitum cubile clamat that you do not lie down for celibate nights,
8 sertis ac Syrio fragrans olivo, which is fragrant from garlands and Syrian oil,
9 pulvinusque peraeque et hic et ille and the pillow equally both this side and that
10 attritus, tremulique quassa lecti worn away, and the battered creaking of the shaken
11 argutatio inambulatioque. bed, and its moving to and fro.
12 Iam tu ista ipse vales nihil tacere. Now you yourself would do well to not at all keep silent these things.
13 Cur? Non tam latera ecfututa pandas, Why? For you wouldn't extend such fucked-out thighs
14 ni tu quid facias ineptiarum. unless you were doing something unfitting.
15 Quare, quidquid habes boni malique, Therefore, whatever you have of good and bad,
16 dic nobis. Volo te ac tuos amores tell us. I want to call you and your love
17 ad caelum lepido vocare versu. into the sky with charming verse.

Connotations of the Text

Line 12

This line is surrounded by textual problems. The manuscripts read: nam in (or ni) ista prevalet nichil tacere. Given above is the reading of S.G. Owen, which has the major advantage of making sense.

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