Catullus, Poem 28

Gaius Valerius Catullus
84-54 BCE (over 2,000 years ago)
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Golden Age/Republican Era)

PISONIS comites,

[Associates of Piso,]

cohors inanis,

[you mindless lackies,]

aptis sarcinulis et expeditis,

[with your knapsacks prepared and dispatched]

Verani optime tuque mi Fabulle,

[Veranius, my most dear man, and Fabullus, my friend,]

quid rerum geritis?

[what kinds of things do you do now?]

satisne cum isto

uappa frigoraque et famem tulistis?

[Isn't enough for you to have endured stale wine, and the cold, and bouts of hunger?]

ecquidnam in tabulis patet lucelli

expensum,

[and what will be the cost for the little profit that you've racked up in your accounts ,]

 ut mihi, qui meum secutus

praetorem refero datum lucello?

[as in my case, I, who after following the praetor, will record only the slightest of profits?]

o Memmi, bene me ac diu supinum

tota ista trabe lentus irrumasti.

[O Memmius, long and well did you bugger me on my back deep with that long shaft of yours.]

sed, quantum uideo, pari fuistis

casu:

[but still, as far as I can see, you two have befallen the same fate:]

 nam nihilo minore uerpa

farti estis.

[you see, you’ve been crammed by no smaller a dick.]

pete nobiles amicos!

[“Try to find well-born associates!”]

at uobis mala multa di deaeque

dent,

[But may the gods and goddesses shall grant you unfortunate affairs,]

 opprobria Romuli Remique.

[scandals that befit Romulus and Remus.]