Catullus 65

Question 1

Etsi me assiduo confectum cura dolore

sevocat a doctis, Hortale, virginibus,

Answer 1

Even though sorrow calls me away, exhausted as I am

with constant grief, from the learned maidens, Hortalus

Question 2

nec potis est dulcis Musarum expromere fetus

mens animi, tantis fluctuat ipsa malis—

Answer 2

and my mind’s imagination is not able to bring forth the sweet
birth of the Muses, my mind itself is tossed about with such great misfortunes-

Question 3

namque mei nuper Lethaeo in gurgite fratris
pallidulum manans alluit unda pedem,
Troia Rhoeteo quem subter litore tellus
ereptum nostris obterit ex oculis.

Answer 3

for indeed, just lately the flowing wave washed in the Lethean stream
the pale foot of my brother whom the Trojan land snatched
from our eyes and crushes
Close to the Rhoeteum shore.

Question 4

numquam ego te, vita frater amabilior,

aspiciam posthac? at certe semper amabo,

Answer 4

Will I never tell you, will I never have heard you, o brother more beloved than life,
Will I never behold you hereafter/ But certainly I will always love you,

Question 5

semper maesta tua carmina morte canam,
qualia sub densis ramorum concinit umbris
Daulias, absumpti fata gemens Ityli–

Answer 5

I will always sing songs saddened by your death,
such songs as Daulias sings under the dense shade of branches,
As she laments the fate of dead Iytlus-

Question 6

sed tamen in tantis maeroribus, Ortale, mitto

haec expressa tibi carmina Battiadae,

Answer 6

but nevertheless in such great grieves, Hortalus, I send

to you these translated songs of the son of Battus,

Question 7

ne tua dicta vagis nequiquam credita ventis

effluxisse meo forte putes animo,

Answer 7

lest you think that your words were entrusted in vain to the wandering
winds and have slipped perhaps from my mind,

Question 8

ut missum sponsi furtivo munere malum

procurrit casto virginis e gremio,

Answer 8

as the apple delivered in the way of a secret gift

falls forth from the chaste bosom of a maiden,

Question 9

quod miserae oblitae molli sub veste locatum,

dum adventu matris prosilit, excutitur,

Answer 9

which was placed under the soft robe of the forgetful wretch,
while she jumps up with the arrival of her mother, it is shaken out

Question 10

atque illud prono praeceps agitur decursu,

huic manat tristi conscius ore rubor.

Answer 10

and is driven headlong in a downward descent,

A guilty blush flows across her face.