Catullus 11: The Ironies of Integrity

Abstract

Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli,sive in extremos penetrabit Indos,litus ut longe resonante Eoa tunditur unda,sive in Hyrcanos Arabasve molles,seu Sagas sagittiferosve Parthos,sive quae septemgeminus colorat aequora Nilus,sive trans altas gradietur Alpes,Caesaris visens monimenta magni,Gallicum Rhenum horribile aequor ultimosque Britannos,omnia haec, quaecumque feret voluntascaelitum, temptare simul parati,pauca nuntiate meae puellae non bona dicta.cum suis vivat valeatque moechis,quos simul complexa tenet trecentos,nullum amans vere, sed identidem omnium ilia rumpens;nee meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,qui illius culpa cecidit velut pratiultimi flos, praetereunte postquam tactus aratro est.(Furius and Aurelius, companions of Catullus, whether he will make his way into the farthest Indi, where the shore is beaten by the far-resounding eastern wave, or into the Hyrcani or the soft Arabians, whether to the Sagae or arrow-bearing Parthians, whether into the waters which sevenfold Nile dyes, whether he will cross over the lofty Alps, viewing the memorials of mighty Caesar, the Gallic Rhine, bristling water and remotest Britons — all these things, prepared to test together whatever the will of the gods shall bring: announce a few words to my girl, words not pleasant. Let her live and flourish with her adulterers, whom three hundred at once she holds in her embrace, loving no one of them truly, but again and again breaking the strength of all. And let her not look for my love, as before, which by her fault has fallen like a flower of the remotest meadow after it has been touched by a passing plough.)