The Oxford Book of Latin Verse Part 70

This beautiful and delicate piece remains the despair of the translator.

I quote a few lines of Cowley's sometimes rather clumsy version (beginning from _Sic, inquit, mea uita_):

'MY little life, my all,' said she, 'So may we ever servants be To this best G.o.d, and ne'er retain Our hated liberty again: So may thy pa.s.sion last for me As I a pa.s.sion have for thee Greater and fiercer much than can Be conceived by thee a man.

Into my marrow is it gone, Fixt and settled in the bone, It reigns not only in my heart But runs like fire through every part.'

She spoke: the G.o.d of Love aloud Sneezed again, and all the crowd Of little Loves that waited by Bowed and blest the augury.

COWLEY.

_85 b_

So many critics have compared Catullus to Burns that some of them may be glad to see this North-Italian rendered into the English of the North.

WEEP, weep, ye Loves and Cupids all, And ilka Man o' decent feelin': My la.s.sie's lost her wee, wee bird, And that's a loss, ye'll ken, past healin'.

The la.s.sie lo'ed him like her een: The darling wee thing lo'ed the ither, And knew and nestled to her breast, As ony bairnie to her mither.

Her bosom was his dear, dear haunt-- So dear, he cared na lang to leave it; He'd nae but gang his ain sma' jaunt, And flutter piping back bereavit.

The wee thing's gane the shadowy road That's never travelled back by ony: Out on ye, Shades! ye're greedy aye To grab at aught that's brave and bonny.

Puir, foolish, fondling, bonnie bird, Ye little ken what wark ye're leavin': Ye've gar'd my la.s.sie's een grow red, Those bonnie een grow red wi' grievin'.

G.S. DAVIES.

I append the version of Prof. R. Ellis, which preserves the metre of the original:

WEEP each heavenly Venus, all the Cupids, Weep all men that have any grace about ye.

Dead the sparrow, in whom my love delighted, The dear sparrow, in whom my love delighted.

Yea, most precious, above her eyes, she held him, Sweet, all honey: a bird that ever hail'd her Lady mistress, as hails the maid a mother;

Nor would move from her arms away: but only Hopping round her, about her, hence or hither, Piped his colloquy, piped to none beside her.

Now he wendeth along the mirky pathway, Whence, they tell us, is hopeless all returning.

Evil on ye, the shades of evil Orcus, Shades all beauteous happy things devouring, Such a beauteous happy bird ye took him.

Ah! for pity; but ah! for him the sparrow, Our poor sparrow, on whom to think my lady's Eyes do angrily redden all a-weeping.

R. ELLIS.

_86 a_

Langhorne is best known by his translation of Plutarch's _Lives_. But he was a copious poet; and Catullus has never perhaps been more gracefully rendered than in the following piece:

LESBIA, live to love and pleasure, Careless what the grave may say: When each moment is a treasure Why should lovers lose a day?

Setting suns shall rise in glory, But when little life is o'er, There's an end of all the story-- We shall sleep, and wake no more.

Give me, then, a thousand kisses, Twice ten thousand more bestow, Till the sum of boundless blisses Neither we nor envy know.

J. LANGHORNE.

I append the beginning of Blacklock's version:

THOUGH sour-loquacious Age reprove, Let _us_, my Lesbia, live for love.

For when the short-lived suns decline They but retire more bright to s.h.i.+ne: But we, when fleeting life is o'er And light and love can bless no more, Are ravished from each dear delight To sleep one long eternal night.

T. BLACKLOCK.

_86 b_

KISS me, sweet: the wary lover Can your favours keep, and cover, When the common courting jay All your bounties will betray.

Kiss again! no creature comes; Kiss, and score up wealthy sums On my lips, thus hardly sundered, While you breathe. First give a hundred, Then a thousand, then another Hundred, then unto the tother Add a thousand and so more, Till you equal with the store All the gra.s.s that Rumney yields, Or the sands in Chelsea fields, Or the drops in silver Thames, Or the stars that gild his streams In the silent summer nights When Youth plies its stolen delights: That the curious may not know How to tell 'em as they flow, And the envious, when they find What their number is, be pined.

BEN JONSON.

_92_

CATULLUS, let the wanton go: No longer play the fool, but deem For ever lost what thou must know Is fled for ever like a dream!

O life was once a heaven to thee!

To haunt her steps was rapture then-- That woman loved as loved shall be No woman ever on earth again.

Then didst thou freely taste the bliss, On which empa.s.sioned lovers feed: When she repaid thee kiss for kiss, O, life was then a heaven indeed!

'Tis past: forget as she forgets: Lament no more, but let her go: Tear from thy heart its mad regrets, And into very marble grow!

Girl, fare thee well. Catullus ne'er Will sue where love is met with scorn: But, false one, thou with none to care For thee, shalt pine through days forlorn.

Think, think, how drear thy life will be!

Who'll woo thee now? who praise thy charms?

Who now will be all in all to thee And live but in thy loving arms?

Ay, who will give thee kiss for kiss, Whose lip wilt thou in rapture bite?

But thou, Catullus, think of this And spurn her in thine own despite.

THEODORE MARTIN.

_97_

Of this, one of the most famous and effective of Catullus's poems, I offer two versions. The first (an adaptation) is by 'knowing Walsh', the friend of Pope, p.r.o.nounced by Dryden to be 'the first critic in the nation': the second is by Prof. Slater of Cardiff:

IS there a pious pleasure that proceeds From contemplation of our virtuous deeds?