Latin Text and Translation
| External audio | |
|---|---|
| Catullus 16 (English), read by Louis Zukofsky, PennSound | |
| Line | Latin text | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo, | I will sodomize you and face-fuck you, |
| 2 | Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi, | pussy Aurelius and catamite Furius, |
| 3 | qui me ex versiculis meis putastis, | you who think, because my poems |
| 4 | quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum. | are sensitive, that I have no shame. |
| 5 | Nam castum esse decet pium poetam | For it's proper for a devoted poet to be moral |
| 6 | ipsum, versiculos nihil necessest; | himself, in no way is it necessary for his poems. |
| 7 | qui tum denique habent salem ac leporem, | In point of fact, these have wit and charm |
| 8 | si sunt molliculi ac parum pudici | if they are sensitive and a little shameless, |
| 9 | et quod pruriat incitare possunt, | and can arouse an itch, |
| 10 | non dico pueris, sed his pilosis | and I don't mean in boys, but in those hairy old men |
| 11 | qui duros nequeunt movere lumbos. | who can't get it up. |
| 12 | Vos, quod milia multa basiorum | Because you've read my countless kisses, |
| 13 | legistis, male me marem putatis? | you think less of me as a man? |
| 14 | Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo. | I will sodomize you and face-fuck you. |
Micaela Wakil Janan offers the following modern English prose translation of the poem:
Fuck you, boys, up the butt and in the mouth, you queer Aurelius and you fag Furius! You size me up, on the basis of my poems, because they're a little sexy, as not really decent. A poet has to live clean – but not his poems. They only have spice and charm, if somewhat sexy and really not for children – if, in fact, they cause body talk (I'm not talking in teenagers, but in hairy old man who can barely move their stiff bums). But you, because you happen to read about "many thousands of kisses," you think I'm not a man? Fuck you, boys, up the butt and in the mouth!
Read more about this topic: Catullus 16
Famous quotes containing the words latin, text and/or translation:
“I am not of the opinion generally entertained in this country [England], that man lives by Greek and Latin alone; that is, by knowing a great many words of two dead languages, which nobody living knows perfectly, and which are of no use in the common intercourse of life. Useful knowledge, in my opinion, consists of modern languages, history, and geography; some Latin may be thrown into the bargain, in compliance with custom, and for closet amusement.”
—Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl Chesterfield (1694–1773)
“Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren’t a little flower somebody sewed on.”
—Peggy Noonan (b. 1950)
“Any translation which intends to perform a transmitting function cannot transmit anything but information—hence, something inessential. This is the hallmark of bad translations.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)