Catullus 22 Flashcards
Suffenus iste, Vare, quem probe nosti, homo est venustus et dicax et urbanus, idemque longe plurimos facit versus.
Varus, that Suffenus, whom you know well, is a charming and witty and sophisticated man and the same man makes very many verses by far.
Puto esse ego illi milia aut decem aut plura perscripta, nec sic, ut fit, in palimpsesto relata: cartae regiae, novi libri, novi umbilici, lora rubra, membranae, derecta plumbo et pumice omnia aequata.
I think that a thousand or ten thousand or more have been written by that man, not as usually happens, written on recycled paper, new royal papers of the book, new rollers, red straps, new covers, all ruled with lead and equaled with pumice.
Haec cum legas tu, bellus ille et urbanus Suffenus unus caprimulgus aut fossor rursus videtur: tantum abhorret ac mutat. Hoc quid putemus esse?
When you read these things that charming and sophisticated Suffenus seems only a goatmilker or a ditch digger. So much does he shrink back and changes. What do we think this is?
Qui modo scurra aut si quid hac re scitius videbatur, idem infaceto est infacetior rure, simul poemata attigit, neque idem umquam aeque est beatus ac poema cum scribit:
He who was seeming a witty person, or if anything, more clever than this thing, the same man is duller than the dull country soon as he has touched poetry. The same man is not ever equally as happy when he writes poetry:
tam gaudet in se tamque se ipse miratur. Nimirum idem omnes fallimur, neque est quisquam quem non in aliqua re videre Suffenum possis. Suus cuique attributus est error; sed non videmus manticae quod tergo est.
For he rejoices so much in himself and he himself so at admires himself. Likewise, we all surely deceive ourselves in the same way. There is not anyone whom you are not able to see as Suffenus in something. His own error is attributed to each one, but we do not see the part of the backpack which is on the back.
