Claude Lorrain (1604-1682), Pastoral Landscape. Yale University Art Gallery. Virgil, Georgics 2.458-542 Translated by Sara Chopra Oh, farmers, all too lucky – if they could only know their own fortune! – For whom Earth herself, queen of righteousness, Pours out a simple living from the soil – so far from the clash of the […]
Translations
Catullus 101: Hello and Goodbye
Amiternum relief, first century BCE, showing a Roman funeral procession, in the Museo Nazionale d’Abruzzo, L’Aquila, Italy. By Sara Albert Catullus 101 Multās per gentēs et multa per aequora vectus adveniō hās miserās, frāter, ad īnferiās, ut tē postrēmō dōnārem mūnere mortis et mūtam nēquīquam alloquerer cinerem. quandoquidem fortūna mihī tētē abstulit ipsum. heu […]
Virgil’s Rumor and “Fake News”
Publii Virgilii Maronis Opera cum quinque vulgatis commentariis expolitissimisque figuris atque imaginibus nuper per Sebastianum Brant superadditis (Strasbourg: Johannis Grieninger, 1502) By: Ryan Cooper Aeneid 4.173-188 Extemplo Libyae magnas it Fama per urbes Fama, malum qua non aliud velocius ullum; mobilitate viget, viresque adquirit eundo, parva metu primo, mox sese attollit in auras, ingrediturque […]
Graecia Capta: Sappho and Catullus
Artwork by Mati Davis, based on Lesbia and her Sparrow by Edward John Poynter and In the Days of Sappho by John William Godward By Mati Davis Sappho 31 φαίνεταί μοι κῆνος ἴσος θέοισιν ἔμμεν᾽ ὤνηρ, ὄττις ἐνάντιός τοι ἰσδάνει καὶ πλάσιον ἆδυ φωνεί- σας ὐπακούει καὶ γελαίσας ἰμέροεν, τό μ᾽ ἦ […]
Blinded by Love
Lesbia and her Sparrow, by Sir Edward John Poynter Catullus 83 by Lily Nesvold Lesbia mi praesente viro mala plurima dicit: haec illi fatuo maxima laetitia est. mule, nihil sentis? si nostri oblita taceret, sana esset: nunc quod gannit et obloquitur, non solum meminit, sed, quae multo acrior est res, irata est. hoc est, […]
The City in Peace
The Shield of Achilles Iliad 18.490-508 by Stephen Jagoe ἐν δὲ δύω ποίησε πόλεις μερόπων ἀνθρώπων καλάς. ἐν τῇ μέν ῥα γάμοι τ’ ἔσαν εἰλαπίναι τε, νύμφας δ’ ἐκ θαλάμων δαί̈δων ὕπο λαμπομενάων ἠγίνεον ἀνὰ ἄστυ, πολὺς δ’ ὑμέναιος ὀρώρει: κοῦροι δ’ ὀρχηστῆρες ἐδίνεον, ἐν δ’ ἄρα τοῖσιν αὐλοὶ φόρμιγγές τε βοὴν ἔχον: αἳ […]
Turpis Fausta
Lesbia and her Sparrow, 1860, artist unknown Turpis Fausta by Lily Nesvold ōdī Faustam tantum, quae (ēn!) habet ōs, sane, turpe. Flaccus dīligit illud monstrum, nescio quārē. taedet mē vītae cum spectō fēminam et illum. omnēs noscunt esse scortum, prō pudor, illam. lector: nē stultē saevam, Iove, cēnsuerīs mē sōdēs. nōn ōdī Faustam vērō, […]
The Hive
by Cate Simons Georgics 4.184-227 Omnibus una quies operum, labor omnibus unus: mane ruunt portis; nusquam mora; rursus easdem vesper ubi e pastu tandem decedere campis admonuit, tum tecta petunt, tum corpora curant; fit sonitus, mussantque oras et limina circum. Post, ubi iam thalamis se composuere, siletur in noctem fessosque sopor suus occupat artus. […]
Bar the Dawn from My Bed
By Alicia Lopez Amores 1.13.1-32, 35-48 Iam super oceanum venit a seniore marito flava pruinoso quae vehit axe diem. “Quo properas, Aurora? mane!—sic Memnonis umbris annua sollemni caede parentet avis! nunc iuvat in teneris dominae iacuisse lacertis; si quando, lateri nunc bene iuncta meo est. nunc etiam somni pingues et frigidus aer, et liquidum […]
Graecia Capta: Catullus and Philodemus
By Mati Davis Catullus 85 Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris? Nescio sed fieri sentio et excrucior. Hating and loving. You might want to ask why, why do I do this. Ι᾽m at a loss, but it still hurts and I scream out in pain! Philodemus AP 5.131 […]