Gaius Valerius Catullus
84-54 BCE (over 2,000 years ago)
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Golden Age/Republican Era)
MALEST, Cornifici, tuo Catullo
malest,
[It fares badly, Cornificius, it fairs badly for you friend Catullus,]
me hercule, et laboriose,
[my god, and with great toil]
et magis magis in dies et horas.
[and more and more, day by day, and hour by hour.]
quem tu, quod minimum facillimumque est,
qua solatus es allocutione?
[Whom, and by what form of address you are acclimated to, that is easiest and requires the least effort?]
irascor tibi.
[I'm pissed at you.]
sic meos amores?
[Do you tell about my love affairs so?]
paulum quid lubet allocutionis,
maestius lacrimis Simonideis?
[Why does so little of your speech give you pleasure, when it is more mournful than the tears of Simonides?]