Catullus 89 Translation
Introduction |
Catullus has written several poems about Gellius, and 89 is one of them. In this one, he focuses on why Gellius is so thin. Gellius has a sexual appetite that is notable and Catullus is not afraid to focus on it with plenty of insults.
In 89, the poet writes about Gellius’s thinness and how it is due to his mother being kind and lusty and his sister being charming. He also blames Gellius’s form to the kindness of his uncle and the girls he has met all over the place. Most likely this thinness is due to Gellius’s incestual relationships with his family and his sexual relationships with all of the girls. These comments make Gellius’s sexuality nearly ubiquitous. Nothing is forbidden to him according to Catullus’s verses.
In this translation, the keyword is thin. In other translations, Gellius’s size has a different connotation. He is scrawny or skinny. His mother is healthy. His sister is beautiful. The other women, the girls of his acquaintance, could be cousins. It seems as if Gellius does like to have sex with people he shouldn’t be with.
So, what do we make of the final two lines? It seems as though he should not touch what he is touching. But, even if he didn’t touch those things, he would find another way to be thin. He must have an insatiable appetite for sex and he will satisfy his appetite no matter what. His desire for sex keeps him from other things, so he must be lean.
Otherwise, the scrawny shape could be caused by a sexually transmitted disease, because those did exist in ancient Rome. Catullus would certainly be a poet who would use a play on words to show that Gellius was lean because he had no morals or because he had a disease that kept him thin.
Carmen 89 |
| Line | Latin text | English translation |
|---|---|---|
1 | GELLIVS est tenuis: quid ni? cui tam bona mater | GELLIUS is thin, and well he may be; with a mother so kind |
2 | tamque ualens uiuat tamque uenusta soror | and so lusty and lively, and a sister so charming, |
3 | tamque bonus patruus tamque omnia plena puellis | and so kind an uncle, and so many girls of his acquaintance all over the place, |
4 | cognatis, quare is desinat esse macer? | why should he cease to be lean? |
5 | qui ut nihil attingat, nisi quod fas tangere non est, | Even if he touch nothing but what none may touch, |
6 | quantumuis quare sit macer inuenies. | you will find any number of reasons why he should be lean. |
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Resources |
VRoma Project: http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/089.html
