Written in
Sapphic meter
Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli
sive in extremos penetrabit Indos,
litus ut longe resonante Eoa
tunditur unda,
sive in Hyrcanos Arabasve molles,
seu Sagas sagittiferosve Parthos,
sive quae septemgeminus colorat
aequora Nilus,
sive trans altas gradietur Alpes,
Caesaris visens monimenta magni,
Gallicum Rhenum horribilesque ulti-
mosque Britannos --
omnia haec, quaecumque feret voluntas
caelitum, temptare simul parati,
pauca nuntiate meae puellae
non bona dicta:
cum suis vivat valeatque moechis,
quos simul complexa tenet trecentos,
nullum amans vere, sed identidem omnium
ilia rumpens;
nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,
qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati
ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam
tactus aratro est.
Translation:
This is the 'literal' translation that I did for my
AP class.
Furius and Aurelius, companions of
Catullus,
Whether he will venture into the furthest
India
Where the shore is beaten by the
Eastern wave
resounding far and wide
or (venture) into the Hyrcani or the soft
Arabians
or the Scythians or the
arrow-carrying Parthians
or into whatever water the seven-mouthed
Nile colors,
Or whether he will walk across the high
Alps
seeing the
monument of great
Caesar,
Gallic
Rhine, dreadful and distant,
British,
All these, whatever the
will of the gods
will bring, be prepared together to try to
announce a few not good words
to
my girl:
Let her live and thrive with her
adulterers,
300 of whom she embracing holds
loving not any truely, but repeatedly bursting
all groins;
Let her not expect my
love, as before
which has fallen due to
her fault just as
a
flower of the distant meadow after it has been
touched by the plowshare passing by.
Notes:
Line 1: Furi and Aureli are in the
vocative.
Line 2: the -ve of sive indicates there will be a number of choices.
Line 3: ut + present indicative = 'where'
Line 6: The Scythians where fierce enemies of the
Romans.
Line 9: gradietur is
deponent
Line 10: Enclosed line
Line 11:
Asyndeton (lack of connecting word)
Line 13: feret is future indicative
Line 15: nuntiate takes the dative and is
imperative
Line 16: non bona is
lytotes
Line 17: vivat is present
subjunctive
Line 18: Enclosed line, complexa is deponent, '300' is
hyperbole
Line 20: Insinuates
sexual intercourse.
Line 22: velut introduces a
simile.
Line 24: aratro is
ablative of means
Synopsis
This is one of Catullus' 'I hate
Lesbia, she's a
whore' poems. Catullus addresses this
poem to two of his friends, Furius and Aurelius, to whom he charges that no matter where he himself goes he expects his friends to 'announce a few not good words' to Lesbia. Catullus says he now longer loves Lesbia because of her many
affairs (of course, she was having an affair with Catullus) and using a beautiful
simile, compares the 'fall' of his love to the fall of a
flower mowed down by a passing
plowshare (Lesbia).