The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus Part 4

I commend me to thee with my charmer, Aurelius. I come for modest boon that,--didst thine heart long for aught, which thou desiredst chaste and untouched,--thou 'lt preserve for me the chast.i.ty of my boy. I do not say from the public: I fear those naught who hurry along the thoroughfares. .h.i.ther thither occupied on their own business: truth my fear is from thee and thy p.e.n.i.s, pestilent eke to fair and to foul. Set it in motion where thou dost please, whenever thou biddest, as much as thou wishest, wherever thou findest the opportunity out of doors: this one object I except, to my thought a reasonable boon. But if thy evil mind and senseless rutting push thee forward, scoundrel, to so great a crime as to a.s.sail our head with thy snares, O wretch, calamitous mishap shall happen thee, when with feet taut bound, through the open entrance radishes and mullets shall pierce.

XVI.

Pedicabo ego vos et inrumabo, Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi, Qui me ex versiculis meis putastis, Quod sunt molliculi, parum pudic.u.m.

Nam castum esse decet pium poetam 5 Ipsum, versiculos nihil necessest, Qui tum denique habent salem ac leporem, Si sunt molliculi ac parum pudici Et quod pruriat incitare possunt, Non dico pueris, sed his pilosis, 10 Qui duros nequeunt movere lumbos.

Vos, quom milia multa basiorum Legistis, male me marem putatis?

Pedicabo ego vos et inrumabo.

XVI.

TO AURELIUS AND FURIUS IN DEFENCE OF HIS MUSE'S HONESTY.

I'll ---- you twain and ---- Pathic Aurelius! Furius, libertines!

Who durst determine from my versicles Which seem o'er softy, that I'm scant of shame.

For pious poet it behoves be chaste 5 Himself; no chast.i.ty his verses need; Nay, gain they finally more salt of wit When over softy and of scanty shame, Apt for exciting somewhat prurient, In boys, I say not, but in bearded men 10 Who fail of movements in their hardened loins.

Ye who so many thousand kisses sung Have read, deny male masculant I be?

You twain I'll ---- and ----

I will paedicate and irrumate you, Aurelius the bardache and Furius the cinaede, who judge me from my verses rich in love-liesse, to be their equal in modesty. For it behoves your devout poet to be chaste himself; his verses--not of necessity. Which verses, in a word, may have a spice and volupty, may have pa.s.sion's cling and such like decency, so that they can incite with ticklings, I do not say boys, but bearded ones whose stiffened limbs amort lack pliancy in movement. You, because of many thousand kisses you have read, think me womanish. I will paedicate and irrumate you!

XVII.

O Colonia, quae cupis ponte ludere longo, Et salire paratum habes, sed vereris inepta Crura ponticuli a.s.sulis stantis in redivivis, Ne supinus eat cavaque in palude rec.u.mbat; Sic tibi bonus ex tua pons libidine fiat, 5 In quo vel Salisubsili sacra suscipiantur: Munus hoc mihi maximi da, Colonia, risus.

Quendam municipem meum de tuo volo ponte Ire praecipitem in lutum per caputque pedesque, Verum totius ut lacus putidaeque paludis 10 Lividissima maximeque est profunda vorago.

Insulsissimus est h.o.m.o, nec sapit pueri instar Bimuli tremula patris dormientis in ulna.

Quoi c.u.m sit viridissimo nupta flore puella (Et puella tenellulo delicatior haedo, 15 Adservanda nigerrimis diligentius uvis), Ludere hanc sinit ut lubet, nec pili facit uni, Nec se sublevat ex sua parte, sed velut alnus In fossa Liguri iacet suppernata securi, Tantundem omnia sentiens quam si nulla sit usquam, 20 Talis iste meus stupor nil videt, nihil audit, Ipse qui sit, utrum sit an non sit, id quoque nescit.

Nunc eum volo de tuo ponte mittere p.r.o.num, Si pote stolidum repente excitare veternum Et supinum animum in gravi derelinquere caeno, 25 Ferream ut soleam tenaci in voragine mula.

XVII.

OF A "PREDESTINED" HUSBAND.

Colony! fain to display thy games on length of thy town-bridge!

There, too, ready to dance, though fearing the shaking of crazy Logs of the Bridgelet propt on pier-piles newly renewed, Lest supine all sink deep-merged in the marish's hollow, So may the bridge hold good when builded after thy pleasure 5 Where Salisubulus' rites with solemn function are sacred, As thou (Colony!) grant me boon of mightiest laughter.

Certain a townsman mine I'd lief see thrown from thy gangway Hurled head over heels precipitous whelmed in the quagmire, Where the lake and the boglands are most rotten and stinking, 10 Deepest and lividest lie, the swallow of hollow voracious.

Witless surely the wight whose sense is less than of boy-babe Two-year-old and a-sleep on trembling forearm of father.

He though wedded to girl in greenest bloom of her youth-tide, (Bride-wife daintier bred than ever was delicate kidlet, 15 Worthier diligent watch than grape-bunch blackest and ripest) Suffers her sport as she please nor rates her even at hair's worth, Nowise 'stirring himself, but lying log-like as alder Felled and o'er floating the fosse of safe Ligurian woodsman, Feeling withal, as though such spouse he never had own'd; 20 So this marvel o' mine sees naught, and nothing can hear he, What he himself, an he be or not be, wholly unknowing.

Now would I willingly pitch such wight head first fro' thy bridge, Better a-sudden t'arouse that numskull's stolid old senses, Or in the sluggish mud his soul supine to deposit 25 Even as she-mule casts iron shoe where quagmire is stiffest.

O Colonia, that longest to disport thyself on a long bridge and art prepared for the dance, but that fearest the trembling legs of the bridgelet builded on re-used shavings, lest supine it may lie stretched in the hollow swamp; may a good bridge take its place designed to thy fancy, on which e'en the Salian dances may be sustained: for the which grant to me, Colonia, greatest of gifts glee-exciting. Such an one, townsman of mine, I want from thy bridge to be pitched in the sludge head over heels, right where the lake of all its stinking slime is dankest and most superfluent--a deep-sunk abyss. The man is a gaping gaby! lacking the sense of a two-years-old baby dozing on its father's cradling arm. Although to him is wedded a girl flushed with springtide's bloom (and a girl more dainty than a tender kid, meet to be watched with keener diligence than the lush-black grape-bunch), he leaves her to sport at her list, cares not a single hair, nor bestirs himself with marital office, but lies as an alder felled by Ligurian hatchet in a ditch, as sentient of everything as though no woman were at his side. Such is my b.o.o.by! he sees not, he hears naught.

Who himself is, or whether he be or be not, he also knows not. Now I wish to chuck him head first from thy bridge, so as to suddenly rouse (if possible) this droning dullard and to leave behind in the sticky slush his sluggish spirit, as a mule casts its iron shoe in the tenacious slough.

XVIII.

Hunc luc.u.m tibi dedico, consecroque, Priape, Qua domus tua Lampsaci est, quaque silva, Priape, Nam te praecipue in suis urbibus colit ora h.e.l.lespontia, caeteris ostreosior oris.

XVIII.

TO PRIAPUS, THE GARDEN-G.o.d.

This grove to thee devote I give, Priapus!

Who home be Lampsacus and holt, Priapus!

For thee in cities wors.h.i.+p most the sh.o.r.es Of h.e.l.lespont the richest oystery strand.

This grove I dedicate and consecrate to thee, Priapus, who hast thy home at Lampsacus, and eke thy woodlands, Priapus; for thee especially in its cities wors.h.i.+ps the coast of the h.e.l.lespont, richer in oysters than all other sh.o.r.es.

XVIIII.

Hunc ego, juvenes, loc.u.m, villulamque pal.u.s.trem, Tectam vimine junceo, caricisque maniplis, Quercus arida, rustica conformata securi, Nunc tuor: magis, et magis ut beata quotannis.

Hujus nam Domini colunt me, Deumque salutant, 5 Pauperis tugurii pater, filiusque coloni: Alter, a.s.sidua colens diligentia, ut herba Dumosa, asperaque a meo sit remota sacello: Alter, parva ferens manu semper munera larga.

Florido mihi ponitur picta vere corolla 10 Primitu', et tenera virens spica mollis arista: Luteae violae mihi, luteumque papaver, Pallentesque cucurbitae, et suaveolentia mala, Vva pampinea rubens educata sub umbra.

Sanguine hanc etiam mihi (sed tacebitis) aram 15 Barbatus linit hirculus, cornipesque capella: Pro queis omnia honoribus haec necesse Priapo Praestare, et domini hortulum, vineamque tueri.

Quare hinc, o pueri, malas abstinete rapinas.

Vicinus prope dives est, negligensque Priapus. 20 Inde sumite: semita haec deinde vos feret ipsa.

XVIIII.

TO PRIAPUS.

This place, O youths, I protect, nor less this turf-builded cottage, Roofed with its osier-twigs and thatched with its bundles of sedges; I from the dried oak hewn and fas.h.i.+oned with rustical hatchet, Guarding them year by year while more are they evermore thriving.

For here be owners twain who greet and wors.h.i.+p my G.o.ds.h.i.+p, 5 He of the poor hut lord and his son, the pair of them peasants: This with a.s.siduous toil aye works the thicketty herbage And the coa.r.s.e water-gra.s.s to clear afar from my chapel: That with his open hand ever brings me offerings humble.

Hung up in honour mine are flowery firstlings of spring-tide, 10 Wreaths with their ears still soft the tender stalklets a-crowning; Violets pale are mine by side of the poppy-head pallid; With the dull yellow gourd and apples sweetest of savour; Lastly the blus.h.i.+ng grape disposed in shade of the vine-tree.

Anon mine altar (this same) with blood (but you will be silent!) 15 Bearded kid and anon some h.o.r.n.y-hoofed nanny shall sprinkle.

Wherefore Priapus is bound to requite such honours by service, Doing his duty to guard both vineyard and garth of his lordling.

Here then, O lads, refrain from ill-mannered picking and stealing: Rich be the neighbour-hind and negligent eke his Priapus: 20 Take what be his: this path hence leadeth straight to his ownings.

This place, youths, and the marshland cot thatched with rushes, osier-twigs and bundles of sedge, I, carved from a dry oak by a rustic axe, now protect, so that they thrive more and more every year. For its owners, the father of the poor hut and his son,--both husbandmen,--revere me and salute me as a G.o.d; the one labouring with a.s.siduous diligence that the harsh weeds and brambles may be kept away from my sanctuary, the other often bringing me small offerings with open hand. On me is placed a many-tinted wreath of early spring flowers and the soft green blade and ear of the tender corn. Saffron-coloured violets, the orange-hued poppy, wan gourds, sweet-scented apples, and the purpling grape trained in the shade of the vine, [are offered] to me. Sometimes, (but keep silent as to this) even the bearded he-goat, and the h.o.r.n.y-footed nanny sprinkle my altar with blood; for which honours Priapus is bound in return to do everything [which lies in his duty], and to keep strict guard over the little garden and vineyard of his master. Wherefore, abstain, O lads, from your evil pilfering here.

Our next neighbour is rich and his Priapus is negligent. Take from him; this path then will lead you to his grounds.

XX.

Ego haec ego arte fabricata rustica, Ego arida, o viator, ecce populus Agellulum hunc, sinistra, tute quem vides, Herique villulam, hortulumque pauperis Tuor, malasque furis arceo ma.n.u.s. 5 Mihi corolla picta vero ponitur: Mihi rubens arista sole fervido: Mihi virente dulcis uva pampino: Mihique glauca duro oliva frigore.

Meis capella delicata pascuis 10 In urbem adulta lacte portat ubera: Meisque pinguis agnus ex ovilibus Gravem domum remitt.i.t aere dexteram: Tenerque, matre mugiente, vaccula Deum profundit ante templa sanguinem. 15 Proin', viator, hunc Deum vereberis, Manumque sorsum habebis hoc tibi expedit.

Parata namque crux, sine arte mentula.

Velim pol, inquis: at pol ecce, villicus Venit: valente cui revulsa brachio 20 Fit ista mentula apta clava dexterae.

XX.

TO PRIAPUS.

I thuswise fas.h.i.+oned by rustic art And from dried poplar-trunk (O traveller!) hewn, This fieldlet, leftwards as thy glances fall, And my lord's cottage with his pauper garth Protect, repelling thieves' rapacious hands. 5 In spring with vari-coloured wreaths I'm crown'd, In fervid summer with the glowing grain, Then with green vine-shoot and the luscious bunch, And glaucous olive-tree in bitter cold.

The dainty she-goat from my pasture bears 10 Her milk-distended udders to the town: Out of my sheep-cotes ta'en the fatted lamb Sends home with silver right-hand heavily charged; And, while its mother lows, the tender calf Before the temples of the G.o.ds must bleed. 15 Hence of such G.o.dhead, (traveller!) stand in awe, Best it befits thee off to keep thy hands.

Thy cross is ready, shaped as artless yard; "I'm willing, 'faith" (thou say'st) but 'faith here comes The boor, and plucking forth with bended arm 20 Makes of this tool a club for doughty hand.

I, O traveller, shaped with rustic art from a dry poplar, guard this little field which thou seest on the left, and the cottage and small garden of its indigent owner, and keep off the greedy hands of the robber. In spring a many-tinted wreath is placed upon me; in summer's heat ruddy grain; [in autumn] a luscious grape cl.u.s.ter with vine-shoots, and in the bitter cold the pale-green olive. The tender she-goat bears from my pasture to the town milk-distended udders; the well-fattened lamb from my sheepfolds sends back [its owner] with a heavy handful of money; and the tender calf, 'midst its mother's lowings, sheds its blood before the temple of the G.o.ds. Hence, wayfarer, thou shalt be in awe of this G.o.d, and it will be profitable to thee to keep thy hands off. For a punishment is prepared--a roughly-shaped mentule. "Truly, I am willing," thou sayest; then, truly, behold the farmer comes, and that same mentule plucked from my groin will become an apt cudgel in his strong right hand.

XXI.