Catullus 11 in Latin & English: Furi et Aureli comites Catulli
Channel: David Amster
Date: 2020-09-14

#catullus
#latinpoetry
#latinpronunciation

Furius and Aurelius: calling them “comrades” is ironic. Based on what he says about them in other poems, here they are only despised errand boys. 
He addresses them in Carmen XVI in not the friendliest of terms:
“Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo,
Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi.”
It seems here they have said they’re willing to do anything and go anywhere for Catullus; thus his catalogue of exotic distant lands. 

Date: 55 BC

Eos: goddess of the dawn, symbolizing the East. 

Hyrcanos: the Hyrcani lived along the south shore of the Caspian Sea.

Sagas are the nomadic people of northern Iran, called Scythians by the Greeks. 

The Parthians bordered the Roman Empire on the east in Asia Minor; their archery rendered them especially dangerous to the Romans.

The Nile is called septemgeminus because of its seven mouths, which colored the nearby sea with its muddy waters.

Sapphic Stanza: The meter used in this poem is based on the poetry of the 6th century BC poet, Sappho. 
Using "–" for a long syllable, "∪" for a short syllable, and "x" for an “anceps”(free syllable). Please see the link below for more info and some wonderful modern attempts at Sapphic verse:

– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –
– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –
– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –
– ∪ ∪ – –

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapphic_stanza?wprov=sfti1

Images:

Roman ruins in India, 1st century BC, Arikamedu, Pondicherry

Hadrianic marble relief representing Parthia, 2nd century AD

Marble portrait of Julius Caesar, the Chiaramonti Caesar, 1st century BC, one of only two portraits made before the Roman Empire. 

Marble sculpture of Julius Caesar, Vienna, 19th century 

Roman fresco, Casa della Farnesia, Rome, 19 BC. 


Catulli Carmen XI ad Furium et Aurelium

Furi et Aureli comites Catulli,
sive in extremos penetrabit Indos,
litus ut longe resonante Eoa
     tunditur unda,
sive in Hyrcanos Arabesve molles,
seu Sagas sagittiferosve Parthos,
sive quae septemgeminus colorat
     aequora Nilus,
sive trans altas gradietur Alpes,
Caesaris visens monimenta magni,
Gallicum Rhenum horribilesque ulti-
     mosque Britannos,
omnia haec, quaecumque feret voluntas
caelitum, 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;
nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,
qui illius culpa cecidit velut prati
ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam
     tactus aratro est.

Furius and Aurelius, comrades of Catullus, 
whether he ventures into the farthest reaches of India 
where the shore is beaten by the 
     far-resounding Eastern wave,

Or to the Hyrcanians or sybaritic Arabs,
or the Scythians or arrow-bearing Parthians,
or to the seas tinted by the 
     seven-mouthed Nile,

Or whether he travels across the high Alps,
seeing the monuments of mighty Caesar,
Gallic Rhine and the remotest of
     dreaded Britons,

Ready at once to attempt all these things,
whatever the will of the celestials provides,
convey just a few words to my girl,
     not very nice ones. 

May she live and be well with her lechers,
whom she holds embracing three-hundred at a time,
loving not one truly, but again and again crushing 
     the groins of them all;

Nor should she expect my love, as before,
which has fallen, by her iniquity, 
like a flower at the edge of the meadow, 
     struck by a passing plow.

Translation DWA 
Fez, 9/14/20