Catullus - Poem 101
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
et multam nequiquam adloquerer 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
Translation - Aubrey Beardsley
By ways remote and
distant waters sped,
Brother, to thy sad
grave-side am I come,
That I may give the last gifts to the
dead,
And vainly parley with thine ashes dumb:
Since she who now bestows and now denies
Hath taken thee, hapless brother, from mine eyes.
But lo! these gifts, the heirlooms of past years,
Are made sad things to grace thy
coffin shell,
Take them, all drenchèd with a brother’s tears,
And, brother, for all time,
hail and farewell!
Catullus (c84BC-c54BC) was born at
Verona in Italy and owned an estate at Sirmio on Lake Garda, as well as a villa near
Rome
116 poems survive of Catullus' work and these were mostly written between 61 and 54 BC. However, they cannot be precisely dated, and there are ancient
citations for at least 5 more.
Catullus died at the age of 30, according to Ovid.
For more biographical details, see the Catullus node