Catullus, Carmina 15 and 48
Feb. 14th, 2012 10:23![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyOr, love does extreme things.
48
Mellitos oculos tuos, Iuventi,
siquis me sinat usque basiare,
usque ad milia basiem trecenta,
nec unquam videar satur futurus,
non si densior aridis aristis
sit nostrae seges osculationis.
Your sweet eyes, Iuventus,
If I should be allowed to kiss them continuously,
I would kiss three hundred thousand times,
Nor would I ever think that enough,
Not if they were more closely packed
Than a field of waving ears of corn.
15
Commendo tibi me ac meos amores,
Aureli. Veniam peto pudentem,
ut, si quicquam animo tuo cupisti
quod castum expeteres et integellum,
conserves puerum mihi pudice,
non dico a populo: nihil veremur
istos qui in platea modo huc modo illuc
in re praetereunt sua occupati;
verum a te metuo tuoque pene
infesto pueris bonis malisque.
Quem tu qua libet, ut libet moveto
quantum vis, ubi erit foris paratum:
hunc unum excipio, ut puto, pudenter.
Quod si te mala mens furorque vecors
in tantam impulerit, sceleste, culpam,
ut nostrum insidiis caput lacessas,
ah! tum te miserum malique fati.
Quem attractis pedibus patente porta
percurrent raphanique mugilesque.
I entrust my darling to you,
Aurelius. I ask of you a modest favor,
That, if ever you have desired in your soul
To keep something pure and untouched,
Then keep my boy safe, chastely,
And I'm not talking about the people--I fear nothing from
Those, who in the streets pass hither and thither
About their own business--
In truth I fear danger from you and your cock
That's troublesome to boys good and bad.
Where and how you please, let it out to play,
Always ready for business whenever you're outside:
I make this one only an exception, and I think it's not much.
For if the evil passion of your demented mind
Drives you to that crime, you wicked man,
Of treachery plotted against me,
Oh! then I am sorry for your unhappy fate.
For drawn up with your back door spread out
You'll be sodomized with radishes and mullets.
Note 15, final line: this was apparently a traditional punishment for adulterers caught in the act.
48
Mellitos oculos tuos, Iuventi,
siquis me sinat usque basiare,
usque ad milia basiem trecenta,
nec unquam videar satur futurus,
non si densior aridis aristis
sit nostrae seges osculationis.
Your sweet eyes, Iuventus,
If I should be allowed to kiss them continuously,
I would kiss three hundred thousand times,
Nor would I ever think that enough,
Not if they were more closely packed
Than a field of waving ears of corn.
15
Commendo tibi me ac meos amores,
Aureli. Veniam peto pudentem,
ut, si quicquam animo tuo cupisti
quod castum expeteres et integellum,
conserves puerum mihi pudice,
non dico a populo: nihil veremur
istos qui in platea modo huc modo illuc
in re praetereunt sua occupati;
verum a te metuo tuoque pene
infesto pueris bonis malisque.
Quem tu qua libet, ut libet moveto
quantum vis, ubi erit foris paratum:
hunc unum excipio, ut puto, pudenter.
Quod si te mala mens furorque vecors
in tantam impulerit, sceleste, culpam,
ut nostrum insidiis caput lacessas,
ah! tum te miserum malique fati.
Quem attractis pedibus patente porta
percurrent raphanique mugilesque.
I entrust my darling to you,
Aurelius. I ask of you a modest favor,
That, if ever you have desired in your soul
To keep something pure and untouched,
Then keep my boy safe, chastely,
And I'm not talking about the people--I fear nothing from
Those, who in the streets pass hither and thither
About their own business--
In truth I fear danger from you and your cock
That's troublesome to boys good and bad.
Where and how you please, let it out to play,
Always ready for business whenever you're outside:
I make this one only an exception, and I think it's not much.
For if the evil passion of your demented mind
Drives you to that crime, you wicked man,
Of treachery plotted against me,
Oh! then I am sorry for your unhappy fate.
For drawn up with your back door spread out
You'll be sodomized with radishes and mullets.
Note 15, final line: this was apparently a traditional punishment for adulterers caught in the act.