fadeaccompli (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fadeaccompli) wrote2013-07-17 11:34 am
fadeaccompli) wrote2013-07-17 11:34 am
(no subject)
It's gonna be a day full of Catullus transcription, here in my journal!
Catullus 7
You asked how many of your kisses*,
Lesbia, would be enough and more for me.
As great a number of north African sands
the oracle of Jove cast in the fields
of Cyrenian silphium** about the sacred tomb
of old and sweltering Battus;***
or as many as the stars, which, when night is silent,
watch the furtive loves of men;
so many kisses as you kiss
are enough and beyond for frenzied Catullus,
so that busybodies can’t count them up,
nor wicked tongues curse them.^
---
* It’s actually a comical made-up word based on the verb for kissing; the notes suggest “kissinations”, but I think that’d just confuse people. So I leave it as the boring noun, and footnote. Hurrah for footnotes!
** You’ve heard of an herb that was used in Rome for birth control, and also as a seasoning, to such an extent that it went extinct? That’d be it.
*** An ancient African king. Frankly, I’m confused by the notes as to whether he or the oracle is sweltering, though they’re actually a few hundred miles from each other. It was a confusing sentence! I did my best.
^ When cursing someone, the more information available, the better the curse and the more likely it is to work. Thus, hiding details is a way to avoid curses. Isn’t that interesting?
Catullus 7
You asked how many of your kisses*,
Lesbia, would be enough and more for me.
As great a number of north African sands
the oracle of Jove cast in the fields
of Cyrenian silphium** about the sacred tomb
of old and sweltering Battus;***
or as many as the stars, which, when night is silent,
watch the furtive loves of men;
so many kisses as you kiss
are enough and beyond for frenzied Catullus,
so that busybodies can’t count them up,
nor wicked tongues curse them.^
---
* It’s actually a comical made-up word based on the verb for kissing; the notes suggest “kissinations”, but I think that’d just confuse people. So I leave it as the boring noun, and footnote. Hurrah for footnotes!
** You’ve heard of an herb that was used in Rome for birth control, and also as a seasoning, to such an extent that it went extinct? That’d be it.
*** An ancient African king. Frankly, I’m confused by the notes as to whether he or the oracle is sweltering, though they’re actually a few hundred miles from each other. It was a confusing sentence! I did my best.
^ When cursing someone, the more information available, the better the curse and the more likely it is to work. Thus, hiding details is a way to avoid curses. Isn’t that interesting?