https://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2909201.html

I've dipped into it from time to time, and finally decided to read it through. Less than 120 poems by Catullus survive, all presumed to have been written around 60 BC, and 57 of them are presented in this book (omitting I think the longer and less romantic ones).

It's difficult to sum up poetry, especially translated from a foreign language; I must say the ones that grabbed me most were not the poltiical references (though it's interesting to see disparaging remarks about Julius Caesar from someone who knew him) but the short narrative poems about some particular incident, and the passionate ones like no 5, whose first half Sir Walter Ralegh translated thus:

The sun may set and rise,
But we, contrariwise,
Sleep, after our short light,
One everlasting night.

And there's the well known 85:

I hate and love. If you ask me to explain
The contradiction,
I can’t, but I can feel it, and the pain
Is crucifixion.

Odi et amo. quare id faciam fortasse requiris.
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.

James Michie's translations seem to me to catch both humour and passion, from a writer of over 2000 years ago who still catches our humanity. ( )

Catullus is a Latin poet, that I read with great pleasure in my teens, under the inspirationa guidance of my teacher of Latin.
He had very juicy stories and back ground information on this poet. There were a few poems I actually liked.
But... Latin has long gone to the attick of my memories, much of what I learned I remember, but when I read these poems, there were only two I remember to have read for certain:
number 5 on page 5 and numer 32 on page 19.

I remember Catullus could also be quite rude, poem 97 on page 57 is a VERY good example of that ;-) ( )