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GAI VALERI CATVLLI LIBER
expecta aut mihi linteum remitte ;
quod me non movet aestimatione,
\_verumst mnemosynum mei sodalis.
nam sudaria Saetaba ex Hiberis?
iniserunt mihi muneri Fabullus
et Veranius: haec amem necessest
ut Veraniolum meum et Fabullum.
XIII
Cenanis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me
paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,
si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam
cenam, non sine candida puella
et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.
hace si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster,
cenabis bene: nam tui Catulli
plenus sacculus est aranearum.
sed contra accipies meros amores
seu quid suavius elegantiusvest : 10
nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque,
quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis,
totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum,
XIV
Ni te plus oculis meis amarem,
iucundissime Calve, munere isto
odissem te odio Vatiniano:
nam quid feci ego quidve sum locutus,
cur me tot male perderes poetis?
isti di mala multa dent clienti,
qui tantum tibi misit impiorum.
‘ Or ex Hibere ; exhibere codd.
fe Saas Deore YucelsTHE POEMS OF CATULLUS XHI-XIV
hundred hendecasyllables, or send me back my
napkin—which does not concern me for what it is
worth, but because it is a keepsake from my old
friend; for Fabullus and Veranius sent me some
Saetaban napkins as a present from Hiberia. How
can I help being fond of these, as I am of my dear
Veranius and Fabullus ?
XII
You shall have a good dinner at my house, Fabullus,
in a few days, please the gods, if you bring with you
a good dinner and plenty of it, not forgetting a
pretty girl and wine and wit and all kinds of laughter.
If, I say, you bring all this, my charming friend, you
shall have a good dinner ; for the purse of your Catullus
is full of cobwebs. But on the other hand you shall
have from me love’s very essence, or what is sweeter
or more delicious than love, if sweeter there be; for
T will give you some perfume which the Venuses
and Loves gave to my lady; and when you snuff
its fragrance, you will pray the gods to make you,
Fabullus, nothing but nose.
XIV
Irv I did not love you more than my own eyes, my
dearest Calvus, I should hate you, as we all hate
Vatinius, because of this gift of yours ; for what have
I done, or what have | said, that you should bring
destruction upon me with all these poets? May the
gods send down all their plagues upon that client of
yours who sent you such a set of sinners. But if, as
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GAI VALERI CATVLLI LIBER
qued si, ut suspicor, hoc novum ac repertum
munus dat tibi Sulla litterator,
non est mi male, sed bene ac beate, 10
quod non dispereunt tui labores.
i magni, horribilem et sacrum libellum,
quem tu scilicet ad tuum Catullum
misti, continuo ut die periret
Saturnalibus, optimo dierum !
non non hoe tibi, salse, sic abibit:
nam, si luxerit, ad librariorum
curram stiinia, Caesios, Aquinos,
Suffenum, omnia colligam venena,
ac te his suppliciis remunerabor. 20
vos hine interea valete abite
illuc, unde malum pedem attulistis,
aecli incommoda, pessimi poetae
X1Va
Siovt forte mearum ineptiarum
lectores eritis manusque vestras
non horrebitis admovere nobis
XV
Commenno tibi me ac meos amores,
Aureli. veniam peto pudenter,
ut, si quicquam animo tuo cupisti,
quod castum expeteres et integellum,
conserves puerum mihi pudice,
non dico a populo: nihil veremur
istos, qui in platea modo hue modo illue
in re praetereunt sua occupati:THE POEMS OF CATULLUS XIVa-XV
I suspect, this new and choice present is given you by
Sulla the schoolmaster, then I am not vexed, but well
and happy, because your labours are not lost. Great
gods! what a portentous and accursed book !: And
this was the book which you sent your Catullus, to
kill him off at once on the very day ! of the Saturnalia,
best of days. No, no, you rogue, this shall not end
so for you. For let the morning only come—I will
be off to the shelves of the booksellers, sweep to-
gether Caesii, Aquini, Suffenus, and all such poisonous
stuff, and with these penalties will I pay you back
for your gift. You poets, meantime, farewell, away
with you, back to that ill place whence you brought
your cursed feet, you burdens of our age, you worst
of poets.
XIVa (a fragment) .
O my readers—if there be any who will read my
nonsense, and not shrink from touching me with
your hands...
.
XV
To you, Aurelius, I entrust my all, even my loved
one, and I ask a favour of you, a modest favour. If
you have ever with all your soul desired to keep
anything pure and free from stain, then guard my
darling now in safety—I don’t mean from the vulgar
throng; I have no fear of such as pass to and fro our
streets absorbed in their own business. ’Tis you I
1 Or (continuo adj.) “the very next day”: of. Ov. Fast. V. 734,
v1. 720. Or “that very day, the Saturnalia,” &c.
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