Catullus 31 in Latin & English: Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque ocelle
Channel: David Amster
Date: 2021-04-08

#catullus
#latinpoetry
#latinpronunciation

Catullus expresses his joy at coming home after a year of gruelling service in Bithynia under Memmius. 

Sirmio, a long peninsula in Lake Garda, near Verona, is the site of Catullus’ family villa. The existing Roman villa, called the Grottos of Catullus, was built in the 1st c. A.D. above an earlier one from 1st c. B.C.

Date: 56 B.C.

Meter: limping iambics or choliambic.

x ¯ ˘ ¯ | x ¯ ˘ ¯ | ˘ ¯ ¯ ¯

paēne īnsŭlārūm Sīrmĭo īnsŭlārūmquĕ
ŏcēllĕ quāscūmque īn lĭquēntĭbūs stāgnīs

Ocelle (little eye, jewel): a term of endearment 

Uterque Neptunus (either Neptune): the god of lakes and the god of the sea

Thyniam/Bithynos: the Thyni and Bithyni were Thracian tribes in Asia Minor where Catullus served.

Larem: the guardian deity of the household

Desideratoqu-acquiescimus: due to the elision the two words are pronounced as 10 syllables and seem to suggest longing.  

Lydiae lacus (Lydian lake): the Etruscans who settled in the area were thought to be originally from Lydia in Anatolia. 

Ridete...cachinnorum (resounding laughter): compare  “countless laughter of the ocean waves” in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound. 

Roman mosaic: Neptune standing on a chariot pulled by two sea horses, 3rd century AD

Here’s a brilliant talk about Catullus 31 by novelist, playwright, and professor Carey Harrison. He reads two beautiful translations by poets Thomas Hardy and Thomas Moore:
https://youtu.be/NEAhIYcKPho

Catulli Carmen XXXI ad Sirmium insulam

Paene insularum, Sirmio, insularumque
ocelle, quascumque in liquentibus stagnis
marique vasto fert uterque Neptunus,
quam te libenter quamque laetus inviso,
vix mi ipse credens Thyniam atque Bithynos
liquisse campos et videre te in tuto.
o quid solutis est beatius curis,
cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,
desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?
hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.
salve, o venusta Sirmio, atque ero gaude
gaudente, vosque, o Lydiae lacus undae,
ridete quidquid est domi cachinnorum.

Sirmio, jewel of peninsulas and islands, 
as many as either Neptune bears 
in clear lakes or on the vast sea, 
how gladly, how full of joy I look upon you,
myself hardly believing I’ve left behind Thynia 
and Bithynian plains and see you in safety. 
O what is happier than cares having been set aside,
when the mind puts away its burden, 
and exhausted from toil in foreign lands 
we have come to our family hearth 
and rest in our longed-for bed?
This is the one thing in return for such great labors. 
Greetings, O beautiful Sirmio, 
and rejoice with your master rejoicing, 
and you, O waves of the Lydian lake, 
laugh whatever there is at home
of resounding laughter. 

Translation DWA
Fez, April 8, 2021