T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
To Flavius: Mis-speaking His Mistress
By Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84c. 54 B.C.)(From the Carmina; translated by Sir Richard F. Burton, 1894) |
THY Charmer (Flavius!) to Catullus’ ear | |
Were she not manner’d mean and worst in wit | |
Perforce thou hadst praised nor couldst silence keep. | |
But some enfevered jade, I wot-not-what, | |
Some piece thou lovest, blushing this to own. | 5 |
For, nowise ’customed widower nights to lie | |
Thou’rt ever summoned by no silent bed | |
With flow’r-wreaths fragrant and with Syrian oil, | |
By mattress, bolsters, here, there, everywhere | |
Deep-dinted, and by quaking, shaking couch | 10 |
All crepitation and mobility. | |
Explain! none whoredoms (no!) shall close my lips. | |
Why? such outfuttered flank thou ne’er wouldst show | |
Had not some fulsome work by thee been wrought. | |
Then what thou holdest, boon or bane be pleased | 15 |
Disclose! For thee and thy beloved fain would I | |
Upraise to Heaven with my liveliest lay. | |