Quintia beautiful seems to the crowd; to me, fair, and tall,
Straight; and merits as these readily thus I confess,
But that she is beauteous all I deny, for nothing of lovesome,
Never a grain of salt, shows in her person so large.
Straight; and merits as these readily thus I confess,
But that she is beauteous all I deny, for nothing of lovesome,
Never a grain of salt, shows in her person so large.
Catullus - Carmina
Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
LXXXV.
HOW THE POET LOVES.
Hate I, and love I. Haps thou'lt ask me wherefore I do so.
Wot I not, yet so I do feeling a torture of pain.
I hate and I love. Wherefore do I so, peradventure thou askest. I know not,
but I feel it to be thus and I suffer.
LXXXVI.
Quintia formosast multis, mihi candida, longa,
Rectast. haec ego sic singula confiteor,
Totum illud formosa nego: nam nulla venustas,
Nulla in tam magnost corpore mica salis.
Lesbia formosast, quae cum pulcherrima totast, 5
Tum omnibus una omnes surripuit Veneres.
LXXXVI.
OF QUINTIA.
Quintia beautiful seems to the crowd; to me, fair, and tall,
Straight; and merits as these readily thus I confess,
But that she is beauteous all I deny, for nothing of lovesome,
Never a grain of salt, shows in her person so large.
Lesbia beautiful seems, and when all over she's fairest, 5
Any Venus-gift stole she from every one.
Quintia is lovely to many; to me she is fair, tall, and shapely. Each of
these qualities I grant. But that all these make loveliness I deny: for
nothing of beauty nor scintilla of sprightliness is in her body so massive.
Lesbia is lovely, for whilst the whole of her is most beautiful, she has
stolen for herself every love-charm from all her sex.
LXXXVII.
Nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatam
Vere, quantum a me Lesbia amata mea's.
Nulla fides ullo fuit umquam foedere tanta,
Quanta in amore tuo ex parte reperta meast.
Nunc est mens diducta tua, mea Lesbia, culpa, LXXV
Atque ita se officio perdidit ipsa suo,
Vt iam nec bene velle queat tibi, si optima fias,
Nec desistere amare, omnia si facias.
LXXXVII.
TO LESBIA.
Never a woman could call herself so fondly beloved
Truly as Lesbia mine has been beloved of myself.
Never were Truth and Faith so firm in any one compact
As on the part of me kept I my love to thyself.
Now is my mind to a pass, my Lesbia, brought by thy treason, LXXV
So in devotion to thee lost is the duty self due,
Nor can I will thee well if best of women thou prove thee,
Nor can I cease to love, do thou what doings thou wilt.
No woman can say with truth that she has been loved as much as thou,
Lesbia, hast been loved by me: no love-troth was ever so greatly observed
as in love of thee on my part has been found.
