Monthly Archives: November 2014

Catullus was a 6th century BC Roman poet who influenced everyone from Ovid and Virgil to Yeats and even J.K Rowling. For his many raw sexual references, he was the Bukowski of his time. This is my free translation of his poem #47.

——

Porcius and Socrates,
two perverts of Piso,
that scabby slum of the world,

does that horndog Priapus like you better
than my little Veranius and Fabullus?

Do you party like rock stars all day,
while my friends turn tricks on the street corner?

——-

Porci et Socration, duae sinistrae
Pisonis, scabies famesque mundi,
uos Veraniolo meo et Fabullo
uerpus praeposuit Priapus ille?
uos convivia lauta sumptuose
de die facitis mei sodales
quaerunt in trivio vocationes?