Gaius Valerius Catullus
84-54 BCE (over 2,000 years ago)
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Golden Age/Republican Era)
ADESTE, hendecasyllabi, quot estis
omnes undique,
[Come out, hendecasyllables, as many as you are all, and from everywhere, ]
quotquot estis omnes.
[as many as there possibly are of you.]
iocum me putat esse moecha turpis,
[A filthy whore thinks that I'm a joke,]
et negat mihi nostra reddituram
pugillaria, si pati potestis.
[and she refuses to return my notepads to me, if you can even bear to hear it.]
persequamur eam et reflagitemus.
[Let's get after her, and slap her over and over again.]
quae sit, quaeritis?
["Who might this be," you ask?]
illa, quam uidetis
turpe incedere, mimice ac moleste
ridentem catuli ore Gallicani.
[This girl, the disgusting one you see walking up, is the one who's laughing like a clown, and insolently, with a mouth like Gallic pup.]
circumsistite eam, et reflagitate,
[Stand around her, and strike her repeatedly,]
'moecha putida, redde codicillos,
["Filthy bitch, return my notes,]
redde putida moecha, codicillos!'
[filthy bitch, return my notes!"]
non assis facis?
[You don't give a rat's ass?]
o lutum, lupanar,
aut si perditius potes quid esse.
[O go to fall in some shit, or a whorehouse, or something even more dangerous if you could manage it.]
sed non est tamen hoc satis putandum.
[But, no, this matter's not yet been thought out enough.]
quod si non aliud potest ruborem
ferreo canis exprimamus ore.
[But if nothing else can be managed, let me press that blush out on your iron face with my songs.]
conclamate iterum altiore uoce.
[Once again, shout out, all together, in an even louder voice.]
'moecha putide, redde codicillos,
["Filthy bitch, return my notes,]
redde, putida moecha, codicillos!'
["Filthy bitch, return my notes!"]
sed nil proficimus, nihil mouetur.
[but I'm getting no one, nothing is happening.]
mutanda est ratio modusque uobis,
[Your rhythm needs adjustment, and your meter,]
siquid proficere amplius potestis:
[if you can somehow manage to boom even louder:]
'pudica et proba, redde codicillos.'
["You bitch and skank, return my notes."]
