Catullus 51

Catullus 51 is a poem by the Roman famous love poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 – c. 54 BC). It is an adaptation of one of Sappho's fragmentary lyric poems, Sappho 31. Catullus replaces Sappho's beloved with his own beloved Lesbia. Unlike the majority of Catullus' poems, the meter of this poem is the sapphic meter. This meter is more musical, seeing as Sappho mainly sang her poetry.

N.B. – Catullus is not the only poet who translated Sappho’s poem to use for himself: Pierre de Ronsard is also known to have translated a version of it.

The poem

The following Latin text of Catullus 51 is taken from D. F. S. Thomson; the translation is literal, not literary.

1 5 10 15	Ille mi par esse deo videtur, ille, si fas est, superare divos, qui sedens adversus identidem te      spectat et audit dulce ridentem, misero quod omnes eripit sensus mihi: nam simul te, Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi      <vocis in ore;> lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus flamma demanat, sonitu suopte tintinant aures geminae, teguntur      lumina nocte. otium, Catulle, tibi molestumst: otio exsultas nimiumque gestis: otium et reges prius et beatas      perdidit urbes.	He seems to me to be equal to a god, he, if it is permissible, seems to surpass the gods, who sitting opposite again and again      sees and hears you, sweetly laughing, which stole all the senses from miserable me: for when I look at you, Lesbia, for me there is no more      voice in my mouth But the tongue slips, under the limbs a thin flame pours down, with their own sound both ears are ringing, the lights (eyes)      are covered by night. Leisure, Catullus, is mischievous to you: You revel in and desire leisure too much: Leisure has previously destroyed kings and      lost cities.

• Line 8 is missing from the original manuscript. <vocis in ore> is the generally accepted scholarly conjecture.

See also

• Otium