That Lesbia of ours, that Lesbia,
That only Lesbia by Catullus loved,
Than self, far fondlier, than all his friends,
She now where four roads fork, and wind the wynds
Husks the high-minded scions Remus-sprung.
That only Lesbia by Catullus loved,
Than self, far fondlier, than all his friends,
She now where four roads fork, and wind the wynds
Husks the high-minded scions Remus-sprung.
Catullus - Carmina
Pulcre convenit inprobis cinaedis. 10
LVII.
ON MAMURRA AND JULIUS CAESAR.
Right well are paired these Cinaedes sans shame
Mamurra and Caesar, both of pathic fame.
No wonder! Both are fouled with foulest blight,
One urban being, Formian t'other wight,
And deeply printed with indelible stain: 5
Morbose is either, and the twin-like twain
Share single Couchlet; peers in shallow lore,
Nor this nor that for lechery hungers more,
As rival wenchers who the maidens claim
Right well are paired these Cinaedes sans shame. 10
A comely couple of shameless catamites, Mamurra and Caesar, pathics both.
Nor needs amaze: they share like stains--this, Urban, the other,
Formian,--which stay deep-marked nor can they be got rid of. Both morbidly
diseased through pathic vice, the pair of twins lie in one bed, alike in
erudition, one not more than other the greater greedier adulterer, allied
rivals of the girls. A comely couple of shameless catamites.
LVIII.
Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa,
Illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam
Plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes,
Nunc in quadriviis et angiportis
Glubit magnanimos Remi nepotes. 5
LVIII.
ON LESBIA WHO ENDED BADLY.
Caelius!
That Lesbia of ours, that Lesbia,
That only Lesbia by Catullus loved,
Than self, far fondlier, than all his friends,
She now where four roads fork, and wind the wynds
Husks the high-minded scions Remus-sprung. 5
O Caelius, our Lesbia, that Lesbia, the self-same Lesbia whom Catullus more
than himself and all his own did worship, now at cross-roads and in alleys
husks off the mettlesome descendants of Remus.
LVIIII.
Bononiensis Rufa Rufulum fellat,
Vxor Meneni, saepe quam in sepulcretis
Vidistis ipso rapere de rogo cenam,
Cum devolutum ex igne prosequens panem
Ab semiraso tunderetur ustore. 5
LVIIII.
ON RUFA.
Rufa the Bolognese drains Rufule dry,
(Wife to Menenius) she 'mid tombs you'll spy,
The same a-snatching supper from the pyre
Following the bread-loaves rolling forth the fire
Till frapped by half-shaved body-burner's ire. 5
Rufa of Bononia lends her lips to Rufulus, she the wife of Menenius, whom
oft among the sepulchres ye have seen clutching her meal from the funeral
pile, when pursuing the bread which has rolled from the fire, whilst she
was being buffeted by a semi-shorn corpse-burner.
LX.
Num te leaena montibus Libystinis
Aut Scylla latrans infima inguinum parte
Tam mente dura procreavit ac taetra,
Vt supplicis vocem in novissimo casu
Contemptam haberes a! nimis fero corde? 5
LX.
TO A CRUEL CHARMER.
Bare thee some lioness wild in Lybian wold?
Or Scylla barking from low'st inguinal fold?
With so black spirit, of so dure a mould,
E'en voice of suppliant must thou disregard
In latest circumstance ah, heart o'er hard?
