Catullus 65

Original Latin

Etsi me assiduo confectum cura dolore

sevocat a doctis, Ortale, virginibus,

nec potis est dulcis Musarum expromere fetus

mens animi, tantis fluctuat ipsa malis—

namque mei nuper Lethaeo in gurgite fratris

pallidulum manans alluit unda pedem,

Troia Rhoeteo quem subter litore tellus

ereptum nostris obterit ex oculis.

* * * * * * * *

numquam ego te, vita frater amabilior,

aspiciam posthac? at certe semper amabo,

semper maesta tua carmina morte canam,

qualia sub densis ramorum concinit umbris

Daulias, absumpti fata gemens Ityli—

sed tamen in tantis maeroribus, Ortale, mitto

haec expressa tibi carmina Battiadae,

ne tua dicta vagis nequiquam credita ventis

effluxisse meo forte putes animo,

ut missum sponsi furtivo munere malum

procurrit casto virginis e gremio,

quod miserae oblitae molli sub veste locatum,

dum adventu matris prosilit, excutitur,

atque illud prono praeceps agitur decursu,

huic manat tristi conscius ore rubor.

My Translation

Grief and unyielding pain call me away, Hortalus,

from those clever girls, 

and my mind, drowning in great troubles, 

fails to bring forth the Muses’ sweet fruits, 

and the flowing wave of Lethe’s gulf 

washes my brother’s pale foot–

my brother who the Trojan earth swallowed and crushed

beneath the Rhoetean shore, stealing him from my sight. 

Will I never see you again, my brother–

dearer to me than life itself?

Regardless, I know I will always love you, 

and in my sorrow, I sing songs commemorating your death, 

like the Daulian bird who, 

from beneath the branches’ thick shadows, 

mourns the fate of lost Itylus. 

Even in grief, Hortalus, 

I will send you these verses, 

imitating Callimachus, 

so you never suppose that your words now 

float upon the wandering winds, 

having slipped from my mind

like the apple a lover sends over as a secret gift–

the fruit rolling forward from the pure girl’s lap,

placed beneath her gentle garments and 

forgotten by the poor maiden.

When it slips out and falls, 

rushing headfirst towards the ground, 

a guilty blush infects the entirety 

of her troubled face.