) I
Pierced him with stiffest staff and did him die.
Pierced him with stiffest staff and did him die.
Catullus - Carmina
Tell us where thou wilt be found, declare it
boldly, give up the secret, trust it to the light. What, do the milk-white
maidens hold thee? If thou dost hold thy tongue closed up in mouth, thou
squanderest Love's every fruit: for Venus joys in many-worded babblings.
Yet if thou wishest, thou mayst bar thy palate, if I may be a sharer in thy
love.
LVI.
Orem ridiculam, Cato, et iocosam
Dignamque auribus et tuo cachinno.
Ride, quidquid amas, Cato, Catullum:
Res est ridicula et nimis iocosa.
Deprendi modo pupulum puellae 5
Trusantem: hunc ego, si placet Dionae,
Protelo rigida mea cecidi.
LVI.
TO CATO, DESCRIBING A "BLACK JOKER. "
O risible matter (Cato! ) and jocose,
Digne of thy hearing, of thy sneering digne.
Laugh (Cato! ) an thou love Catullus thine;
The thing is risible, nay, too jocose.
Erstwhile I came upon a lad who a lass 5
Was ---- and (so please it Dion!
) I
Pierced him with stiffest staff and did him die.
O thing ridiculous, Cato, and facetious, and worthy of thine ears and of
thy laughter. Laugh, Cato, the more thou lovest Catullus: the thing is
ridiculous, and beyond measure facetious. Just now I caught a boy
a-thrusting in a girl: and on him (so please you, Dione) with rigid spear
of mine I fell.
LVII.
Pulcre convenit inprobis cinaedis,
Mamurrae pathicoque Caesarique.
Nec mirum: maculae pares utrisque,
Vrbana altera et illa Formiana,
Inpressae resident nec eluentur: 5
Morbosi pariter, gemelli utrique
Vno in lectulo, erudituli ambo,
Non hic quam ille magis vorax adulter,
Rivales sociei puellularum.
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.
boldly, give up the secret, trust it to the light. What, do the milk-white
maidens hold thee? If thou dost hold thy tongue closed up in mouth, thou
squanderest Love's every fruit: for Venus joys in many-worded babblings.
Yet if thou wishest, thou mayst bar thy palate, if I may be a sharer in thy
love.
LVI.
Orem ridiculam, Cato, et iocosam
Dignamque auribus et tuo cachinno.
Ride, quidquid amas, Cato, Catullum:
Res est ridicula et nimis iocosa.
Deprendi modo pupulum puellae 5
Trusantem: hunc ego, si placet Dionae,
Protelo rigida mea cecidi.
LVI.
TO CATO, DESCRIBING A "BLACK JOKER. "
O risible matter (Cato! ) and jocose,
Digne of thy hearing, of thy sneering digne.
Laugh (Cato! ) an thou love Catullus thine;
The thing is risible, nay, too jocose.
Erstwhile I came upon a lad who a lass 5
Was ---- and (so please it Dion!
) I
Pierced him with stiffest staff and did him die.
O thing ridiculous, Cato, and facetious, and worthy of thine ears and of
thy laughter. Laugh, Cato, the more thou lovest Catullus: the thing is
ridiculous, and beyond measure facetious. Just now I caught a boy
a-thrusting in a girl: and on him (so please you, Dione) with rigid spear
of mine I fell.
LVII.
Pulcre convenit inprobis cinaedis,
Mamurrae pathicoque Caesarique.
Nec mirum: maculae pares utrisque,
Vrbana altera et illa Formiana,
Inpressae resident nec eluentur: 5
Morbosi pariter, gemelli utrique
Vno in lectulo, erudituli ambo,
Non hic quam ille magis vorax adulter,
Rivales sociei puellularum.
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.
