Catullus 17 Translation

Introduction

Carmen 17

O Colonia, quae cupis ponte ludere longo, 

O Colonia, you who wish to have a long bridge for your games,

et salire paratum habes, sed uereris inepta 

and are quite ready to dance, but fear the ill-jointed 

crura ponticuli axulis stantis in rediuiuis, 

legs of your little bridge, standing as it does on old posts done up again, 

ne supinus eat cauaque in palude recumbat: 

lest it should fall sprawling and sink down in the depths of the mire;

sic tibi bonus ex tua pons libidine fiat, 

may you have a good bridge made for you according to your desire, 

in quo uel Salisubsali sacra suscipiantur, 

one in which the rites of Salisubsilus himself may be undertaken, 

munus hoc mihi maximi da, Colonia, risus. 

on condition that you grant me this gift, Colonia, to make me laugh my loudest. 

quendam municipem meum de tuo uolo ponte 

There is a townsman of mine whom I wish to go headlong from your bridge

ire praecipitem in lutum per caputque pedesque, 

over head and heels into the mud,

uerum totius ut lacus putidaeque paludis 

only let it be where is the blackest and deepest pit 

liuidissima maximeque est profunda uorago. 

of the whole bog with its stinking morass. 

insulsissimus est homo, nec sapit pueri instar 

The fellow is a perfect blockhead, and has not as much sense as a little baby

bimuli tremula patris dormientis in ulna. 

two years old sleeping in the rocking arms of his father.

cui cum sit uiridissimo nupta flore puella 

He has for a wife a girl in the freshest flower of youth,

et puella tenellulo delicatior haedo, 

a girl too, more exquisite than a tender kidling,

adseruanda nigerrimis diligentius uuis, 

one who ought to be guarded more diligently than ripest grapes,

ludere hanc sinit ut lubet, nec pili facit uni, 

and he lets her play as she will, and does not care one straw, 

nec se subleuat ex sua parte, sed uelut alnus 

and for his part does not stir himself, but lies like an alder 

in fossa Liguri iacet suppernata securi, 

in a ditch hamstrung by a Ligurian axe, 

tantundem omnia sentiens quam si nulla sit usquam; 

with just as much perception of everything as if it did not exist anywhere.

talis iste meus stupor nil uidet, nihil audit, 

Like this, my booby sees nothing, hears nothing; 

ipse qui sit, utrum sit an non sit, id quoque nescit. 

what he himself is, whether he is or is not, he does not know so much as this.

nunc eum uolo de tuo ponte mittere pronum, 

He it is whom I want now to send head foremost from your bridge,

si pote stolidum repente excitare ueternum, 

whether he can all in a moment wake up his lethargy, 

et supinum animum in graui derelinquere caeno, 

and leave his sluggish mind there in the nasty sludge, 

ferream ut soleam tenaci in uoragine mula.

as a mule leaves her iron shoe in the sticky mire.

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