to a little whore I immediately saw,not very inelegant, not unattractive,who, when we came there, met uswith varied chatter, including, how mightBithynia stand now, what’s it like, and wheremight the benefit have been to me in cash.I told her what’s true, nothing at all,while neither the praetors nor their aides,return any the richer, especially sinceour…
As many as the grains of Libyan sandthat lie between hot Jupiter’s oracle,at Ammon, in resin-producing Cyrene,and old Battiades sacred tomb:or as many as the stars, when night is still,gazing down on secret human desires:as many of your kisses kissedare enough, and more, for mad Catullus,as can’t be counted by spiesnor an evil tongue bewitch…
STRANGER, the bark you see before you saysThat in old times and in her early daysShe was a lively vessel that could makeThe quickest voyages, and overtakeAll her competitors with sail or oar;And she defies the rude Illyrian shore,And Rhodes with her proud harbor, and the seasThat intersect the scattered Cyclades,And the Propontic and the…
when your laughter’s radiance falls on him there,trembling before you;the song draws the soul from my body, itshakes me with wanting and fear, because when Isee you I arch to the stars and dissolving Ifade into darkness,and now, like a mawkish boy, I stammer,pale flame veins my flesh and my ears ringcrazy in chimes and…
Once, bright days shone for you,when you came often drawn to the girlloved as no other will be loved by you.Then there were many pleasures with her,that you wished, and the girl not unwilling,truly the bright days shone for you.And now she no longer wants you: and youweak man, be unwilling to chase what flees,or…
Never all the world aroundFaith so true as mind was found.If no longer it endures(Would it did!) the fault is yours.I can never think againWell of you: I try in vain.But . . . be false . . . do what you will-Lesbia! I must love you still.
that loosed her belt, too long tied.
to show this final honour to the dead,and speak (to what purpose?) to your silent ashes,since now fate takes you, even you, from me.Oh, Brother, ripped away from me so cruelly,now at least take these last offerings, blessedby the tradition of our parents, gifts to the dead.Accept, by custom, what a brother’s tears drown,and, for…
Who, Lesbia, sits before thy face,Who listens and who looks on thee;Thee smiling soft. Yet this delightDoth all my sense consign to death;For when thou dawnest on my sight,Ah, wretched! flits my labouring breath.My tongue is palsied. Subtly hidFire creeps me through from limb to limb:My loud ears tingle all unbid:Twin clouds of night mine…
and the great oceans Neptune circles,how delightedly, how gladly, I return,hardly believing myself I’ve safely leftThynia and those Black Sea shores behind.What is better than to be free from carewhen the mind throws off its load and, at last,from foreign journeys, we reach our own home,sink back to rest on the one bed we longed…
