Catullus 2 is a study in envy. The poem is addressed to a “sparrow” belonging to Lesbia — Catullus’s lover. Whether the “sparrow” is indeed a pet bird, or a euphemism for something more, ahem, genitive, I shall leave to the reader’s own understanding. Apparently, however, Catullus’s love did not consider Catullus an exclusive love.
The poem, in Latin, is in two distinct voices. The first section (lines 1-10 in Latin, 1-12 in my translation) being a jealous plaint, the second (lines 11-13 in Latin, 13-14 in mine — “Catullus 2b” by some reckoning) being a reference to Atalanta, the Greek huntress who insisted any prospective husband beat her in a footrace, and killing them if they lost.
Catullus 2:*
My lover’s love, thou Sparrow,
With whom my love is wont to play while on her breastly barrow,
And give to thee her finger-tips upon which thou may nibble,
Which only doth entice thee to devour them as kibble,
When passions mine turn garish,
It pleaseth her to jest about these certain thoughts I cherish,
as just to offer as a little comfort for her grief,
for, I believe, that her own pangs of passion needeth ‘lief.¹
If I could gamble with thee,
To rid my soul of melancholy sorrow as doth she,
Then pain might turn to playfulness within my gentle fingers
And thou wilt be as pleasing like what made the princess linger:
A golden fruit, which halted hurried Atalanta’s haste
did consequently break the bonds that long had kept her chaste.
Passer, deliciae meae puellae,
quicum ludere, quem in sinu tenere,
cui primum digitum dare appetenti
et acris solet incitare morsus,
cum desiderio meo nitenti
carum nescio quid lubet iocari
et solaciolum sui doloris,
credo ut tum gravis acquiescat ardor:
tecum ludere sicut ipsa possem
et tristis animi levare curas!
Tam gratum est mihi quam ferunt puellae
pernici aureolum fuisse malum,
quod zonam soluit diu ligatam.
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@AD_Schwartz | www.facebook.com/andydschwartz | Andrew’s Posts
*The Latin meter is hendecasyllabic — eleven syllables in Spondee-Dactyl-Trochee-Trochee-Trochee form. I have chosen to place part one in three four-line stanzas (AABB), with iambic trimeter in the first line followed by iambic heptameter in the second, third, and fourth. Part two is a couplet in heptapodic meter. Again, this is not a literal translation. Use at your own risk.
¹ Lief may either be inferred as “A beloved, a dear one; a friend, sweetheart,” as in Phineas Fletcher’s Isle of Man (“Thomalin my lief, thy musick strains to heare / More raps my soul, then when the swelling windes / On craggie rocks their whistling voices tear;”), or it may be inferred as a contraction of relief. Either works just fine in my opinion.
