To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?
CATULLUS
Now Spring restores the balmy heat, now Zephyr’s sweet breezes calm the rage of the equinoctial sky.
More Catullus Quotes
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To whom do I give my new elegant little book? Cui dono lepidum novum libellum?
CATULLUS -
Give up wanting to deserve any thanks from anyone, or thinking anybody can be grateful.
CATULLUS -
What women say to lovers, you’ll agree, One writes on running water or on air.
CATULLUS -
The confounding of all right and wrong, in wild fury, has averted from us the gracious favor of the gods.
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 -
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.
CATULLUS -
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The vows that woman makes to her fond lover are only fit to be written on air or on the swiftly passing stream.
CATULLUS -
I hate and love. You ask, perhaps, how can that be? I know not, but I feel the agony.
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.]
CATULLUS -
But you shall not escape my iambics.
CATULLUS -
I hate and I love, and who can tell me why?
CATULLUS -
I hate and love. And why, perhaps you’ll ask. I don’t know: but I feel, and I’m tormented.
CATULLUS -
Oh, this age! How tasteless and ill bred it is!
CATULLUS