Gaius Valerius Catullus
84-54 BCE (over 2,000 years ago)
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Golden Age)
Commendo tibi me ac meos amores/Aureli.
(I set myself and my love as example for you, Aurelius;)
Veniam puto pudentem/ut, si quidquam animo tuo cupisti/quod castum expeteres et integellum/conserves puerum mihi pudice/non dico a populo--
(I think there is a proper way not to announce to the public that if you have begun to desire something in your heart, whatever chaste and uncorrupted thing you seek out, please leave the boy unshamed for me--)
nihil veremur/istos, qui in platea modo huc modo illuc/in re praetereunt sua occupati--
(I never fear men who, obsessed in their own business, walk up and down along the sidewalk--)
verum a te metuo tuoque pene/infesto pueris bonis malisque.
(Truly, I fear you and that dick of yours, slobbered over by virtuous and wicked boys;)
quem tu qua lubet, ut lubet, moveto/quantum vis, ubi erit foris paratum:
(You poke it out when it pleases, whenever possible, and it does please it when it is allowed outside;)
hunc unum excipio, ut puto, pudenter.
(I'm taking this one boy away from you, properly, as I think it;)
quod si te mala mens furorque vecors/in tantam impulerit, sceleste, culpam/ut nostrum insidiis caput lacessas/a tum te miserum malique fati!
(Even still a wicked mind and heartless madness has compelled you to such a great cause of blame, you evil man, that you have wounded my own mind with your schemes, woe onto you and your evil fate now!)
quem attractis pedibus patente porta/percurrent raphanique mugilesque.
(For you, radish and stinky fish will soon rush through your open door on swift feet.)
