| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | To Flavius: Mis-speaking His Mistress | | By Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84–c. 54 B.C.) |
| | (From the Carmina; translated by Sir Richard F. Burton, 1894) |
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THY Charmer (Flavius!) to Catullus’ ear | |
| Were she not manner’d mean and worst in wit | |
| Perforce thou hadst praised nor couldst silence keep. | |
| But some enfevered jade, I wot-not-what, | |
| Some piece thou lovest, blushing this to own. | 5 |
| For, nowise ’customed widower nights to lie | |
| Thou’rt ever summoned by no silent bed | |
| With flow’r-wreaths fragrant and with Syrian oil, | |
| By mattress, bolsters, here, there, everywhere | |
| Deep-dinted, and by quaking, shaking couch | 10 |
| All crepitation and mobility. | |
| Explain! none whoredoms (no!) shall close my lips. | |
| Why? such outfuttered flank thou ne’er wouldst show | |
| Had not some fulsome work by thee been wrought. | |
| Then what thou holdest, boon or bane be pleased | 15 |
| Disclose! For thee and thy beloved fain would I | |
| Upraise to Heaven with my liveliest lay. | | | |
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