Love

L: Dear Lucinius, yestereve we linger'd

by Gaius Valerius Catullus c. 84 – c. 54 BC

Translated by Robinson Ellis (1871) · From The Poems and Fragments of Catullus (1871)

Love

Dear Lucinius, yestereve we linger'd
Scrawling fancies, a hundred, in my tablets,
Wits in combat; a treaty this between us.

Scribbling drolleries each of us together
Launched one arrowy metre and another,
Tenders jocular o'er the merry wine-cup.

So quite sorely with all your humour heated
Gay Lucinius, I that eve departed.

Food my misery could not any lighten,
Sleep nor quiet upon my eyes descended.

Still untamable o'er the couch did I then
Turn and tumble, in haste to see the day-light,
Hear your prattle again, again be with you.

Then, when weary with all the worry, numb'd, dead,
Sank my body, upon the bed reposing,
This, O humorous heart, did I, a poem
Write, my tedious anguish all revealing.

O beware then of hardihood; a lover's
Plea for charity, dear my friend, reject not:
What if Nemesis haply claim repayment?
She is tyrannous. O beware offending.

MLA

Catullus, Gaius Valerius. “L: Dear Lucinius, yestereve we linger'd.” Translated by Robinson Ellis. Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/catullus/47/.

Chicago

Catullus, Gaius Valerius. “L: Dear Lucinius, yestereve we linger'd.” Translated by Robinson Ellis. Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/catullus/47/.

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