B-04 Latin Literature

Latin Literature Catullus (Gaius Valerius Catullus, 87-54) Poem 86 QVINTIA formosa est multis. mihi candida, longa, 1 QUINTIA is thought beautiful by many; I think her fair, tall, recta est: haec ego sic singula confiteor. 2 and straight. I so far allow each of these points, totum illud formosa nego: nam nulla uenustas, 3 but I demur to "beautiful," for she has no grace; nulla in tam magno est corpore mica salis. 4 there is not in the whole compass of her tall person one grain of salt. Lesbia formosa est, quae cum pulcerrima tota est, 5 Lesbia is beautiful: for she possesses all the beauties, tum omnibus una omnis surripuit Veneres 6 and has stolen all the graces from all the women alone for herself. Poem 107 SI quicquam cupido optantique optigit umquam 1 IF anything ever happened to any one who eagerly longed insperanti, hoc est gratum animo proprie. 2 and never hoped, that is a true pleasure to the mind. quare hoc est gratum nobis quoque carius auro 3 And so to me too this is a pleasure more precious than gold, quod te restituis, Lesbia, mi cupido. 4 that you, Lesbia, restore yourself to me who longed for you, restituis cupido atque insperanti, ipsa refers te 5 restore to me who longed, but never hoped, yes, you yourself give yourself back nobis. o lucem candidiore nota! 6 to me. O happy day, blessed with the whiter mark! quis me uno uiuit felicior aut magis hac est 7 What living wight is more lucky than I; or who can say optandus uita dicere quis poterit? 8 that any fortune in life is more desirable than this? Poem 83 LESBIA mi praesente uiro mala plurima dicit: 1 LESBIA says many hard things to me in the presence of her husband, haec illi fatuo maxima laetitia est. 2 a great joy to the fool. mule, nihil sentis? si nostri oblita taceret, 3 Dull mule, you understand nothing. If she forgot me and were silent, sana esset: nunc quod gannit et obloquitur, 4 she would be heart-whole. But as it is, her snarling and railing means this: non solum meminit, sed, quae multo acrior est res, 5 she not only remembers, but -- a much more serious thing -- irata est. hoc est, uritur et loquitur 6 she is angry; that is, she burns, and so she talks. Poem 72 1 DICEBAS quondam solum te nosse Catullum, 1 You used once to say that Catullus was your only friend, Lesbia, nec prae me uelle tenere Iouem. 2 Lesbia, and that you would not prefer Jupiter himself to me. dilexi tum te non tantum ut uulgus amicam, 3 I loved you then, not only as the common sort love a mistress, sed pater ut gnatos diligit et generos. 4 but as a father loves his sons and sons-in-law. nunc te cognoui: quare etsi impensius uror, 5 Now I know you; and therefore, though I burn more ardently, multo mi tamen es uilior et leuior. 6 yet you are in my sight much less worthy and lighter. qui potis est, inquis? quod amantem iniuria talis 7 How can that be? you say. Because such an injury as this drives a lover cogit amare magis, sed bene uelle minus. 8 to be more of a lover, but less of a friend. Poem 85 ODI et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. 1 I HATE and love. Why I do so, perhaps you ask. nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. 2 I know not, but I feel it, and I am in torment. Poem 8 MISER Catulle, desinas ineptire, 1 Poor Catullus, it's time you should cease your folly, et quod uides perisse perditum ducas. 2 And account as lost what you see is lost. fulsere quondam candidi tibi soles, 3 Once the suns shone bright on you, cum uentitabas quo puella ducebat 4 when you used to go so often where my mistress led, amata nobis quantum amabitur nulla. 5 she who was loved by me as none will ever be loved. ibi illa multa cum iocosa fiebant, 6 There and then were given us those joys, so many, so merry, quae tu uolebas nec puella nolebat, 7 which you desired nor did my lady not desire. fulsere uere candidi tibi soles. 8 Bright to you, truly, shone the days. nunc iam illa non uult: tu quoque impotens,noli 9 Now she desires no more; neither should you desire, poor madman, nec quae fugit sectare, nec miser uiue, 10 nor follow her who flies, nor live in misery, sed obstinata mente perfer, obdura. 11 but with resolved mind, endure, be firm. uale puella, iam Catullus obdurat, 12 Farewell, my mistress; now Catullus is firm; nec te requiret nec rogabit inuitam. 13 he will not seek you nor ask you against your will. at tu dolebis, cum rogaberis nulla. 14 But you will be sorry, when you are not asked for. scelesta, uae te, quae tibi manet uita? 15 Ah, poor wretch! What life is left for you? quis nunc te adibit? cui uideberis bella? 16 Who now will visit you? To whom will you seem fair? quem nunc amabis? cuius esse diceris? 17 Whom now will you love? Whose will you be called? 2 quem basiabis? cui labella mordebis? 18 Whom will you kiss? Whose lips will you bite ? at tu, Catulle, destinatus obdura. 19 But you, Catullus, be resolved and firm. METAMORPHOSES Ovid(Publius Ovidius Nasa) (43BC-18AD) P. OVIDI NASONIS METAMORPHOSEN translated into English verse under the direction of Sir Samuel Garth by John Dryden, Alexander Pope, Joseph Addison, William Congreve and other eminent hands [1717] translated by Rolfe Humphries [1955] Samuel Garth (1661--1719): English physician and poet. He was a zealous Whig, the friend of Addison and, though of different political views, of Pope. He ended his career as physician to George I, who knighted him in 1714. John Dryden (9 August 1631 -- 1 May 1700) was an influential English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who dominated the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the period came to be known in literary circles as the Age of Dryden. Walter Scott named him "Glorious John." Alexander Pope (21 May 1688 -- 30 May 1744) was an eighteenth-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson. Pope is famous for his use of the heroic couplet. Joseph Addison (1 May 1672 -- 17 June 1719) was an English essayist, poet, playwright and politician. He was a man of letters, eldest son of Lancelot Addison. His name is usually remembered alongside that of his long-standing friend, Richard Steele, with whom he founded The Spectator magazine. William Congreve (24 January 1670 -- 19 January 1729) was an English playwright and poet. He wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period of the late 17th century. By the age of thirty, he had written four comedies, including Love for Love (premiered 30 April 1695) and The Way of the World (premiered 1700), and one tragedy, The Mourning Bride (1697) Unfortunately, his career ended almost as soon as it began. After writing five plays from his first in 1693 until 1700, he produced no more as public tastes turned against the sort of high-brow sexual comedy of manners in which he specialized. BOOK THE FIRST LIBER PRIMVS OF bodies chang'd to various forms, I sing: Ye Gods, from whom these miracles did spring, Inspire my numbers with coelestial heat; 'Till I my long laborious work compleat: And add perpetual tenour to my rhimes, Deduc'd from Nature's birth, to Caesar's times. My intention is to tell of bodies changing To different forms; the gods, who made the changes, Will help me -- or so I hope -- with a poem That run from the world's beginning to our own days. In nova fert animus mutatas dicere formas corpora; di, coeptis (nam vos mutastis et illas) adspirate meis primaque ab origine mundi ad mea perpetuum deducite tempora carmen! The Creation of the World THE CREATION Before the seas, and this terrestrial ball, And Heav'n's high canopy, that covers all, One was the face of Nature; if a face: Rather a rude and indigested mass: A lifeless lump, unfashion'd, and unfram'd, Of jarring seeds; and justly Chaos nam'd. No sun was lighted up, the world to view; Before the ocean was, or earth, or heaven, Nature was all alike, a shapelessness, Chaos, so-called, all rude and lumpy matter, Nothing but bulk, inert, in whose confusion Discordant atoms warred: there was no sun To light the universe; there was no moon With slender silver crescents filling slowly; Ante mare et terras et quod tegit omnia caelum unus erat toto naturae vultus in orbe, quem dixere chaos: rudis indigestaque moles nec quicquam nisi pondus iners congestaque eodem non bene iunctarum discordia semina rerum. nullus adhuc mundo praebebat lumina Titan, nec nova crescendo reparabat cornua Phoebe, 5 10 3 No moon did yet her blunted horns renew: Nor yet was Earth suspended in the sky, Nor pois'd, did on her own foundations lye: Nor seas about the shores their arms had thrown; But earth, and air, and water, were in one. Thus air was void of light, and earth unstable, And water's dark abyss unnavigable. No certain form on any was imprest; All were confus'd, and each disturb'd the rest. For hot and cold were in one body fixt; And soft with hard, and light with heavy mixt. No sea reached far along the fringe of shore. Land, to be sure, there was, and air, and ocean, But land on which no man could stand, and water No man could swim in, air no man could breathe, Air without light, substance forever changing, Forever at war: within a single body Heat fought with cold, wet fought with dry, and hard Fought with the soft, things having weight contended With weightless things. nec circumfuso pendebat in aere tellus ponderibus librata suis, nec bracchia longo margine terrarum porrexerat Amphitrite; utque erat et tellus illic et pontus et aer, sic erat instabilis tellus, innabilis unda, lucis egens aer; nulli sua forma manebat, obstabatque aliis aliud, quia corpore in uno frigida pugnabant calidis, umentia siccis, mollia cum duris, sine pondere, habentia pondus. 15 20 But God, or Nature, while they thus contend, To these intestine discords put an end: Then earth from air, and seas from earth were driv'n, And grosser air sunk from aetherial Heav'n. Thus disembroil'd, they take their proper place; The next of kin, contiguously embrace; And foes are sunder'd, by a larger space. The force of fire ascended first on high, And took its dwelling in the vaulted sky: Then air succeeds, in lightness next to fire; Whose atoms from unactive earth retire. Earth sinks beneath, and draws a num'rous throng Of pondrous, thick, unwieldy seeds along. About her coasts, unruly waters roar; And rising, on a ridge, insult the shore. Thus when the God, whatever God was he, Had form'd the whole, and made the parts agree, That no unequal portions might be found, Till God, or kindlier Nature, Settled all argument, and separated Heaven from earth, water from land, our air From the high stratosphere, a liberation So things evolved, and out of blind confusion Found each its place, bound in eternal order. The force of fire, that weightless element, Leaped up and claimed the highest place in heaven; Below it, air; and under them the earth Sank with its grosser portions; and the water, Lowest of all, held up, held in, the land. Whatever god it was, who out of chaos Brought order to the universe, and gave it Division, subdivision, he molded earth, In the beginning, into a great globe, Even on every side, and bade the waters Spread and rise, under the rushing winds, Surrounding earth; he added ponds and marshes, He banked the river-channels, and the waters Hanc deus et melior litem natura diremit. nam caelo terras et terris abscidit undas et liquidum spisso secrevit ab aere caelum. quae postquam evolvit caecoque exemit acervo, dissociata locis concordi pace ligavit: ignea convexi vis et sine pondere caeli emicuit summaque locum sibi fecit in arce; proximus est aer illi levitate locoque; densior his tellus elementaque grandia traxit et pressa est gravitate sua; circumfluus umor ultima possedit solidumque coercuit orbem. Sic ubi dispositam quisquis fuit ille deorum congeriem secuit sectamque in membra coegit, principio terram, ne non aequalis ab omni parte foret, magni speciem glomeravit in orbis. tum freta diffundi rapidisque tumescere ventis iussit et ambitae circumdare litora terrae; addidit et fontes et stagna inmensa lacusque fluminaque obliquis cinxit declivia ripis, 25 30 35 4 He moulded Earth into a spacious round: Then with a breath, he gave the winds to blow; And bad[had] the congregated waters flow. He adds the running springs, and standing lakes; And bounding banks for winding rivers makes. Some part, in Earth are swallow'd up, the most In ample oceans, disembogu'd, are lost. He shades the woods, the vallies he restrains With rocky mountains, and extends the plains. Feed earth or run to sea, and that great flood Washes on shores, not banks. He made the plains Spread wide, the valleys settle, and the forest Be dressed in leaves; he made the rocky mountains Rise to full height, quae, diversa locis, partim sorbentur ab ipsa, in mare perveniunt partim campoque recepta liberioris aquae pro ripis litora pulsant. iussit et extendi campos, subsidere valles, fronde tegi silvas, lapidosos surgere montes, utque duae dextra caelum totidemque sinistra 40 45 And as five zones th' aetherial regions bind, Five, correspondent, are to Earth assign'd: The sun with rays, directly darting down, Fires all beneath, and fries the middle zone: The two beneath the distant poles, complain Of endless winter, and perpetual rain. Betwixt th' extreams, two happier climates hold The temper that partakes of hot, and cold. The fields of liquid air, inclosing all, Surround the compass of this earthly ball: The lighter parts lye next the fires above; The grosser near the watry surface move: Thick clouds are spread, and storms engender there, And thunder's voice, which wretched mortals fear, And winds that on their wings cold winter bear. Nor were those blustring brethren left at large, On seas, and shores, their fury to discharge: Bound as they are, and circumscrib'd in place, They rend the world, resistless, where they pass; And mighty marks of mischief leave behind; and as the vault of Heaven Has two zones, left and right, and the one between them Hotter than these, the Lord of all Creation Marked on the earth the same design and pattern. The torrid zone too hot for men to live in, The north and south too cold, but in the middle Varying climate, temperatures and season. Above all things the air, lighter than earth, Lighter than water, heavier than fire, Towers and spreads; There mist and cloud assemble, And fearful thunder and lightning and cold winds, But these, by the Creator’s order, held No general dominion; even as it is, These brothers brawl and quarrel; though each one Has his own quarter, still, they come near tearing The universe apart. Eurus is monarch of the lands of dawn, the realms of Araby, The Persian ridges under the rays of morning. Zephyrus holds the west that glows at sunset, parte secant zonae, quinta est ardentior illis, sic onus inclusum numero distinxit eodem cura dei, totidemque plagae tellure premuntur. quarum quae media est, non est habitabilis aestu; nix tegit alta duas; totidem inter utramque locavit temperiemque dedit mixta cum frigore flamma. Inminet his aer, qui, quanto est pondere terrae pondus aquae levius, tanto est onerosior igni. illic et nebulas, illic consistere nubes iussit et humanas motura tonitrua mentes et cum fulminibus facientes fulgura ventos. His quoque non passim mundi fabricator habendum aera permisit; vix nunc obsistitur illis, cum sua quisque regat diverso flamina tractu, quin lanient mundum; tanta est discordia fratrum. Eurus ad Auroram Nabataeaque regna recessit Persidaque et radiis iuga subdita matutinis; vesper et occiduo quae litora sole tepescunt, proxima sunt Zephyro; Scythiam septemque triones horrifer invasit Boreas; contraria tellus nubibus adsiduis pluviaque madescit ab Austro. 50 55 60 65 5 Such is the rage of their tempestuous kind. First Eurus to the rising morn is sent (The regions of the balmy continent); And Eastern realms, where early Persians run, To greet the blest appearance of the sun. Westward, the wanton Zephyr wings his flight; Pleas'd with the remnants of departing light: Fierce Boreas, with his off-spring, issues forth T' invade the frozen waggon of the North. While frowning Auster seeks the Southern sphere; And rots, with endless rain, th' unwholsom year. High o'er the clouds, and empty realms of wind, The God a clearer space for Heav'n design'd; Where fields of light, and liquid aether flow; Purg'd from the pondrous dregs of Earth below. Boreas, who makes me shiver, holds the north, Warm Auster governs in the misty southland, And over them all presides the weightless ether, Pure without taint of earth. haec super inposuit liquidum et gravitate carentem aethera nec quicquam terrenae faecis habentem. Scarce had the Pow'r distinguish'd these, when streight The stars, no longer overlaid with weight, Exert their heads, from underneath the mass; And upward shoot, and kindle as they pass, And with diffusive light adorn their heav'nly place. Then, every void of Nature to supply, With forms of Gods he fills the vacant sky: New herds of beasts he sends, the plains to share: New colonies of birds, to people air: And to their oozy beds, the finny fish repair. These boundaries given, Behold, the stars long hidden under darkness, Broke through and shone, all over the spangled torrid heaven, Their home forever, and the gods lived there, And shining fish were given the waves for dwelling And beasts the earth, and birds the moving air. Vix ita limitibus dissaepserat omnia certis, cum, quae pressa diu fuerant caligine caeca, sidera coeperunt toto effervescere caelo; neu regio foret ulla suis animalibus orba, astra tenent caeleste solum formaeque deorum, cesserunt nitidis habitandae piscibus undae, terra feras cepit, volucres agitabilis aer. 70 75 A creature of a more exalted kind Was wanting yet, and then was Man design'd: Conscious of thought, of more capacious breast, For empire form'd, and fit to rule the rest: But something else was needed, a finer being, More capable of mind, a sage, a ruler, So Man was born, it may be, in God’s image, Or Earth, perhaps, so newly separated Sanctius his animal mentisque capacius altae deerat adhuc et quod dominari in cetera posset: natus homo est, sive hunc divino semine fecit ille opifex rerum, mundi melioris origo, 6 7 Whether with particles of heav'nly fire The God of Nature did his soul inspire, Or Earth, but new divided from the sky, And, pliant, still retain'd th' aetherial energy: Which wise Prometheus temper'd into paste, And, mixt with living streams, the godlike image cast. Thus, while the mute creation downward bend Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, Man looks aloft; and with erected eyes Beholds his own hereditary skies. From such rude principles our form began; And earth was metamorphos'd into Man. From the old fire of Heaven, still retained Some seed of the celestial force which fashioned Gods out of living clay and running water. All other animals look downward; Man, Along[Alone], erect, can raise his face toward Heaven. sive recens tellus seductaque nuper ab alto aethere cognati retinebat semina caeli. quam satus Iapeto, mixtam pluvialibus undis, finxit in effigiem moderantum cuncta deorum, pronaque cum spectent animalia cetera terram, os homini sublime dedit ca