Better a sparrow, living or dead, than no birdsong at all.
CATULLUSWhat women say to lovers, you’ll agree, One writes on running water or on air.
More Catullus Quotes
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I hate and I love, and who can tell me why?
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For the godly poet must be chaste himself, but there is no need for his verses to be so.
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Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love. Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus
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Away with you, water, destruction of wine!
CATULLUS -
Away with you, water, destruction of wine!
CATULLUS -
So a maiden, whilst she remains untouched, so long is she dear to her own; when she has lost her chaste flower with sullied body, she remains neither lovely to boys nor dear to girls.
CATULLUS -
I write of youth, of love, and have access by these to sing of cleanly wantonness.
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Now Spring restores the balmy heat, now Zephyr’s sweet breezes calm the rage of the equinoctial sky.
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Who now travels that dark path from whose bourne they say no one returns. [Lat., Qui nunc it per iter tenebricosum Illue unde negant redire quemquam.]
CATULLUS -
My lady’s sparrow is dead, the sparrow which was my lady’s delight
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What women say to lovers, you’ll agree, One writes on running water or on air.
CATULLUS -
Stop wishing to merit anyone’s gratitude or thinking that anyone can become grateful.
CATULLUS -
I hate and I love. Perchance you ask why I do that. I know not, but I feel that I do and I am tortured. [Lat., Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris. Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.]
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Godlike the man who sits at her side, who watches and catches that laughter which (softly) tears me to tatters: nothing is left of me, each time I see her.
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Every one has his faults: but we do not see the wallet on our own backs.
CATULLUS