Chapter III: Introduction

The present translation was jointly undertaken by the late Sir Richard Burton and myself in 1890, some months before his sudden and lamented death. We had previously put into English, and privately printed, a body of verse from the Latin, and our aim was to follow it with literal and unexpurgated renderings of Catullus, Juvenal, and Ausonius, from the same tongue. Sir Richard laid great stress on the necessity of thoroughly annotating each translation from an erotic (and especially a paederastic) point of view, but subsequent circumstances caused me to abandon that intention.

The Latin text of Catullus printed in this volume is that of Mueller (A.D. 1885), which Sir Richard Burton chose as the basis for our translation, and to that text I have mainly adhered. On some few occasions, however, I have slightly deviated from it, and, although I have consulted Owen and Postgate, in such cases I have usually followed Robinson Ellis.

Bearing in mind my duty to the reader as well as to the author, I have aimed at producing a readable translation, and yet as literal a version (castrating no passages) as the dissimilarity in idiom of the two languages, Latin and English, permit; and I claim for this volume that it is the first literal and complete English translation as yet issued of Catullus. The translations into English verse which I have consulted are _The Adventures of Catullus, and the History of his Amours with Lesbia_ (done from the French, 1707), Nott, Lamb, Fleay, (privately printed, 1864), Hart-Davies, Shaw, Cranstoun, Martin, Grant Allen, and Ellis. Of these, none has been helpful to me save Professor Robinson Ellis's _Poems and Fragments of Catullus translated in the metres of the original_,--a most excellent and scholarly version, to which I owe great indebtedness for many a felicitous expression. I have also used Dr. Nott freely in my annotations. The only English prose translation of which I have any knowledge is the one in Bohn's edition of Catullus, and this, in addition to being bowdlerized, is in a host of passages more a paraphrase than a literal translation.

I have not thought it needful in any case to point out my deviations from Mueller's text, and I have cleared the volume of all the load of mythological and historical notes which are usually appended to a translation of a classic, contenting myself with referring the non-classical reader to Bohn's edition of the poet.

Of the boldness of Sir Richard Burton's experiment of a metrical and linear translation there can be no question; and on the whole he has succeeded in proving his contention as to its possibility, though it must be confessed that it is at times at the cost of obscurity, or of inversions of sentences which certainly are compelled to lay claim to a poet's license. It must, however, be borne in mind that in a letter to me just before his death, he expressed his intention of going entirely through the work afresh, on receiving my prose, adding that it needed "a power of polishing."

To me has fallen the task of editing Sir Richard's share in this volume from a type-written copy literally swarming with copyist's errors. With respect to the occasional lacunae which appear, I can merely state that Lady Burton has repeatedly assured me that she has furnished me with a faithful copy of her husband's translation, and that the words omitted (which are here indicated by full points, not asterisks) were _not_ filled in by him, because he was first awaiting my translation with the view of our not using similar expressions. However, Lady Burton has without any reason consistently refused me even a glance at his MS.; and in our previous work from the Latin I did not find Sir Richard trouble himself in the least concerning our using like expressions.

The frontispiece to this volume is reproduced from the statue which stands over the Palazzo di Consiglio, the Council House at Verona, which is the only representation of Catullus extant.

LEONARD C. SMITHERS.

_July 11th, 1894._

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CONTENTS

I.--DEDICATION TO CORNELIUS NEPOS
II.--LESBIA'S SPARROW
III.--ON THE DEATH OF LESBIA'S SPARROW
IIII.--ON HIS PINNACE
V.--TO LESBIA, (OF LESBOS--CLODIA?)
VI.--TO FLAVIUS: MIS-SPEAKING HIS MISTRESS
VII.--TO LESBIA STILL BELOVED
VIII.--TO HIMSELF, RECOUNTING LESBIA'S INCONSTANCY
VIIII.--TO VERANIUS RETURNED FROM TRAVEL
X.--HE MEETS VARUS AND MISTRESS
XI.--A PARTING INSULT TO LESBIA
XII.--TO M. ASINIUS WHO STOLE NAPERY
XIII.--FABULLUS IS INVITED TO A POET'S SUPPER
XIIII.--TO CALVUS, ACKNOWLEDGING HIS POEMS
XV.--TO AURELIUS--HANDS OFF THE BOY!
XVI.--TO AURELIUS AND FURIUS, IN DEFENCE OF HIS MUSE'S HONESTY
XVII.--OF A "PREDESTINED" HUSBAND
XVIII.--TO PRIAPUS, THE GARDEN-GOD
XVIIII.--TO PRIAPUS
XX.--TO PRIAPUS
XXI.--TO AURELIUS THE SKINFLINT
XXII.--TO VARUS, ABUSING SUFFENUS
XXIII.--TO FURIUS, SATIRICALLY PRAISING HIS POVERTY
XXIIII.--TO JUVENTIUS CONCERNING THE CHOICE OF A FRIEND
XXV.--ADDRESS TO THALLUS, THE NAPERY-THIEF
XXVI.--CATULLUS CONCERNING HIS VILLA
XXVII.--TO HIS CUP-BOY
XXVIII.--TO FRIENDS ON RETURN FROM TRAVEL
XXVIIII.--TO CÆSAR, OF MAMURRA--CALLED MENTULA
XXX.--TO ALFENUS THE PERJURER
XXXI.--ON RETURN TO SIRMIO AND HIS VILLA
XXXII.--CRAVING IPSITHILLA'S LAST FAVOURS
XXXIII.--ON THE VIBENII--BATH-THIEVES
XXXIIII.--HYMN TO DIANA
XXXV.--AN INVITATION TO POET CECILIUS
XXXVI.--ON "THE ANNALS"--A SO-CALLED POEM OF VOLUSIUS
XXXVII.--TO THE FREQUENTERS OF A LOW TAVERN
XXXVIII.--A COMPLAINT TO CORNIFICIUS
XXXVIIII.--ON EGNATIUS OF THE WHITE TEETH
XXXX.--THREATENING RAVIDUS WHO STOLE HIS MISTRESS
XXXXI.--ON MAMURRA'S MISTRESS
XXXXII.--ON A STRUMPET WHO STOLE HIS TABLETS
XXXXIII.--TO MAMURRA'S MISTRESS
XXXXIIII.--CATULLUS TO HIS OWN FARM
XXXXV.--ON ACME AND SEPTUMIUS
XXXXVI.--HIS ADIEUX TO BITHYNIA
XXXXVII.--TO PORCIUS AND SOCRATION
XXXXVIII.--TO JUVENTIUS
XXXXVIIII.--TO MARCUS TULLIUS CICERO
L.--TO HIS FRIEND LICINIUS
LI.--TO LESBIA
LII.--CATULLUS TO HIMSELF
LIII.--A JEST CONCERNING CALVUS
LIIII.--TO JULIUS CÆSAR (?)
LV.---OF HIS FRIEND CAMERIUS
LVI.--TO CATO, DESCRIBING A "BLACK JOKER"
LVII.--ON MAMURRA AND JULIUS CÆSAR
LVIII.--ON LESBIA WHO ENDED BADLY
LVIIII.--ON RUFA
LX.--TO A CRUEL CHARMER
LXI.--EPITHALAMIUM ON VINIA AND MANLIUS
LXII.--NUPTIAL SONG BY YOUTHS AND DAMSELS (EPITHALAMIUM)
LXIII.--THE ADVENTURES OF ATYS
LXIIII.--MARRIAGE OF PELEUS AND THETIS (FRAGMENT OF AN EPOS)
LXV.--TO HORTALUS LAMENTING A LOST BROTHER
LXVI.--(LOQUITUR) BERENICE'S LOCK
LXVII.--DIALOGUE CONCERNING CATULLUS AT A HARLOT'S DOOR
LXVIII.--TO MANIUS ON VARIOUS MATTERS
LXVIIII.--TO RUFUS THE FETID
LXX.--ON WOMAN'S INCONSTANCY
LXXI.--TO VERRO
LXXII.--TO LESBIA THE FALSE
LXXIII.--OF AN INGRATE
LXXIIII.--OF GELLIUS
LXXVII.--TO RUFUS, THE TRAITOR FRIEND
LXXVIII.--OF GALLUS
LXXVIIII.--OF LESBIUS
LXXX.--TO GELLIUS
LXXXI.--TO JUVENTIUS
LXXXII.--TO QUINTIUS
LXXXIII.--OF LESBIA'S HUSBAND
LXXXIIII.--OF ARRIUS, A ROMAN 'ARRY
LXXXV.--HOW THE POET LOVES
LXXXVI.--OF QUINTIA
LXXXVII., LXXV.--TO LESBIA
LXXVI.--IN SELF-GRATULATION
LXXXVIII.--TO GELLIUS
LXXXVIIII.--ON GELLIUS
LXXXX.--ON GELLIUS
LXXXXI.--TO GELLIUS
LXXXXII.--ON LESBIA
LXXXXIII.--ON JULIUS CÆSAR
LXXXXIIII.--AGAINST MENTULA (MAMURRA)
LXXXXV.--ON THE "ZMYRNA" OF THE POET CINNA
LXXXXVI.--TO CALVUS, ANENT THE DEAD QUARTILLA
LXXXXVII.--ON ÆMILIUS THE FOUL
LXXXXVIII.--TO VICTIUS THE STINKARD
LXXXXVIIII.--TO JUVENTIUS
C.--ON CÆLIUS AND QUINTIUS
CI.--ON THE BURIAL OF HIS BROTHER
CII.--TO CORNELIUS
CIII.--TO SILO
CIIII.--CONCERNING LESBIA
CV.--ON MAMURRA
CVI.--THE AUCTIONEER AND THE FAIR BOY
CVII.--TO LESBIA RECONCILED
CVIII.--ON COMINIUS
CVIIII.--TO LESBIA ON HER VOW OF CONSTANCY
CX.--TO AUFILENA
CXI.--TO THE SAME
CXII.--ON NASO
CXIII.--TO CINNA
CXIIII.--ON MAMURRA'S SQUANDERING
CXV.--OF THE SAME
CXVI.--TO GELLIUS THE CRITIC

NOTES ILLUSTRATIVE AND EXPLANATORY

* * * * *

The Carmina

OF

Caius Valerius Catullus

* * * * *

C. VALERII CATVLLI

LIBER.

I.

Quoi dono lepidum novom libellum
Arida modo pumice expolitum?
Corneli, tibi: namque tu solebas
Meas esse aliquid putare nugas,
Iam tum cum ausus es unus Italorum 5
Omne aevum tribus explicare chartis
Doctis, Iuppiter, et laboriosis.
Quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli,
Qualecumque, quod o patrona virgo,
Plus uno maneat perenne saeclo. 10