Gaius Valerius Catullus
84-54 BCE (over 2,000 years ago)
Trans RMBullard Latin
(Golden Age)
Flavi, delicias tuas Catullo/ni sint illepidae atque inelegantes/velles dicere nec tacere posses.
(Flavius, may you wish to say and may you not be able to be silent about your girlfriend, unless she is not charming and not elegant;)
verum nescio quid febriculosi/scorti diligis: hoc pudet fateri.
(Truly, you delight in some kind of feverish shame: it is shameful to say this;)
nam te non viduas iacere noctes/nequiquam tacitum cubile clamat/sertis ac Syrio fragrans olivo/pulvinusque peraeque et hic et ille/attritus, tremulique quassa lecti/argutatio inambulatioque.
(For your bed, never silent, fragant with garlands and Syrian olive, claims that you do not recline for empty nights, and pillows and cushions here and there, and the shaking back and forth and walking-upon of your trembling bed;)
---nihil tacere.
(Don't be silent;)
cur? non tam latera ecfututa pandas/ni tu quid facias ineptiarum.
(Why? You don't stretch out her backside, wearied from sex, since you may be doing something uncool;)
quare, quidquid habes boni malique/dic nobis.
(Come one, whatever you have, good or bad, tell me;)
volo te ac tuos amores/ad caelum lepido vocare versu.
(I want to shout you and your love up to the sky in my verses.)
Flavi, delicias tuas Catullo/ni sint illepidae atque inelegantes/velles dicere nec tacere posses.
(Flavius, may you wish to say and may you not be able to be silent about your girlfriend, unless she is not charming and not elegant;)
verum nescio quid febriculosi/scorti diligis: hoc pudet fateri.
(Truly, you delight in some kind of feverish shame: it is shameful to say this;)
nam te non viduas iacere noctes/nequiquam tacitum cubile clamat/sertis ac Syrio fragrans olivo/pulvinusque peraeque et hic et ille/attritus, tremulique quassa lecti/argutatio inambulatioque.
(For your bed, never silent, fragant with garlands and Syrian olive, claims that you do not recline for empty nights, and pillows and cushions here and there, and the shaking back and forth and walking-upon of your trembling bed;)
---nihil tacere.
(Don't be silent;)
cur? non tam latera ecfututa pandas/ni tu quid facias ineptiarum.
(Why? You don't stretch out her backside, wearied from sex, since you may be doing something uncool;)
quare, quidquid habes boni malique/dic nobis.
(Come one, whatever you have, good or bad, tell me;)
volo te ac tuos amores/ad caelum lepido vocare versu.
(I want to shout you and your love up to the sky in my verses.)
