Translation:Catullus 99

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Catullus 99
by Catullus, translated from Latin by Wikisource

Elegiac couplets.

1320089Catullus 99WikisourceCatullus
Literal English Translation Original Latin Line

I stole from you, while you were playing, honey-sweet Iuventius,
   a kiss more sweet than sweet ambrosia.
Truly I did not lift this unpunished: for such a long hour
   I remember that I was crucified on the highest cross,
while I purged myself to you, nor was I able to remove
   with any tears so small a quantity of your ferocity.
For at the same time it was done, you wiped
   your lips, having been washed by many tears, with all your fingers,
nor did anything having been received from my mouth remain,
   just as if it were the filthy spit of a filthy prostitute.
Besides this, to hand over lovesick me, you did not hold back
   from troubled love, and to torture in every way,
with the result that for me that kiss changed from ambrosia
   to more bitter than bitter hellebore.
Because you put forth such a punishment for miserable love,
   I will never steal a kiss after this.

Surripui tibi, dum ludis, mellite Iuventi,
   suaviolum dulci dulcius ambrosia.
verum id non impune tuli: namque amplius horam
   suffixum in summa me memini esse cruce,
dum tibi me purgo nec possum fletibus ullis
   tantillum vestrae demere saevitiae.
nam simul id factum est, multis diluta labella
   guttis abstersisti omnibus articulis,
ne quicquam nostro contractum ex ore maneret,
   tamquam commictae spurca saliva lupae.
praeterea infesto miserum me tradere amori
   non cessasti omnique excruciare modo,
ut mi ex ambrosia mutatum iam foret illud
   suaviolum tristi tristius elleboro.
quam quoniam poenam misero proponis amori,
   numquam iam posthac basia surripiam.

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