Gaius Valerius Catullus
84-54 BCE (over 2,000 years ago)
Trans RMBullard
Latin (Golden Age/Republican Era)
ACMEN Septimius suos amores
tenens in gremio 'mea' inquit 'Acme,
[Septimius, holding the love of his life Acme in his lap, said, "My lady Acme,"]
ni te perdite amo
[I will love you till the day you die <suggestions?>]
atque amare porro
omnes sum assidue paratus annos,
[and I'm eagerly willing to love you for all the years following that,]
quantum qui pote plurimum perire,
solus in Libya Indiaque tosta
caesio ueniam obuius leoni.'
[as much as a man can perish all the more, let me fall to my death by a lion, alone in Libya and roasting India."]
hoc ut dixit,
[As he said this,]
Amor sinistra ut ante
dextra sternuit approbationem.
[Love extended his approval, with left hand laid before right.]
at Acme leuiter caput reflectens
et dulcis pueri ebrios ocellos
illo purpureo ore suauiata,
[But then, Acme, playfully bending her head back and kissing the drunking eyes of her sweet boyfriend, with that rosy mouth of hers,]
'sic' inquit 'mea uita Septimille,
huic uni domino usque seruiamus,
[said, "So, light of my life, my dear little Septimius,]
ut multo mihi maior acriorque
ignis mollibus ardet in medullis.'
[you aim to make the fire in my soft little bones all the more greater, and fiercer."]
hoc ut dixit,
[As she said this,]
Amor sinistra ut ante
dextra sternuit approbationem.
[Love extended his approval, with left hand laid before right.]
nunc ab auspicio bono profecti
mutuis animis amant amantur.
[Now they, carried forth by happy omens, love each other, and are each other, loved.]
unam Septimius misellus Acmen
mauult quam Syrias Britanniasque:
[Poor little Septimius prefers a single girl, Acme, over Syrian girls and British girls:]
uno in Septimio fidelis Acme
facit delicias libidinisque.
[faithful Acme gives the lustful delights only to a single man, Septimius.]
quis ullos homines beatiores
uidit, quis Venerem auspicatiorem?
[Who ever saw any more blessed people, and any more auspicious Love?]
