Wikibooks

The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus/6

< The Poetry of Gaius Valerius Catullus
This page may need to be reviewed for quality.
This poem and any consequent annotation contains obscene material. Any readers who might be offended by content of this type should leave this page. This WikiBook's aim is to provide all of Catullus' works uncensored, and as such cannot guarantee the protection of minors.

Text & Translation

edit

Meter - Hendecasyllabic

Line Latin Text English Translation
1 Flavi, delicias tuas Catullo, Flavius, about your darling to Catullus
2 ni sint illepidae atque inelegantes, unless she is uncharming or inelegant,
3 velles dicere, nec tacere posses. you would want to speak, nor would you be able to stay silent.
4 Verum nescio quid febriculosi But you single out I don't know what sort
5 scorti diligis: hoc pudet fateri. of feverish whore: it shames you to confess this thing.
6 Nam te non viduas iacere noctes For the couch, vainly tacet, proclaims
7 nequiquam tacitum cubile clamat that you do not lie down for celibate nights,
8 sertis ac Syrio fragrans olivo, which is fragrant from garlands and Syrian oil,
9 pulvinusque peraeque et hic et ille and the pillow equally both this side and that
10 attritus, tremulique quassa lecti worn away, and the battered creaking of the shaken
11 argutatio inambulatioque. bed, and its moving to and fro.
12 Iam tu ista ipse vales nihil tacere. Now you yourself would do well to not at all keep silent these things.
13 Cur? Non tam latera ecfututa pandas, Why? For you wouldn't extend such fucked-out thighs
14 ni tu quid facias ineptiarum. unless you were doing something unfitting.
15 Quare, quidquid habes boni malique, Therefore, whatever you have of good and bad,
16 dic nobis. Volo te ac tuos amores tell us. I want to call you and your love
17 ad caelum lepido vocare versu. into the sky with charming verse.

Connotations of the Text

edit

Line 12

edit

This line is surrounded by textual problems. The manuscripts read: nam in (or ni) ista prevalet nichil tacere. Given above is the reading of S.G. Owen, which has the major advantage of making sense.

edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/The_Poetry_of_Gaius_Valerius_Catullus/6"