My lady’s sparrow is dead, the sparrow which was my lady’s delight
CATULLUSWhat women say to lovers, you’ll agree, One writes on running water or on air.
More Catullus Quotes
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I can imagine no greater misfortune for a cultured people than to see in the hands of the rulers not only the civil, but also the religious power.
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Away with you, water, destruction of wine!
CATULLUS -
Now Spring restores the balmy heat, now Zephyr’s sweet breezes calm the rage of the equinoctial sky.
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There is nothing more foolish than a foolish laugh.
CATULLUS -
We see not our own backs.
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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 -
Away with you, water, destruction of wine!
CATULLUS -
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 -
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then a thousand more.
CATULLUS -
But you shall not escape my iambics.
CATULLUS -
Every one has his faults: but we do not see the wallet on our own backs.
CATULLUS -
The confounding of all right and wrong, in wild fury, has averted from us the gracious favor of the gods.
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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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Better a sparrow, living or dead, than no birdsong at all.
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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.
CATULLUS