craven.fr (.ox.ac.uk)

Cui dono lepidum novum libellum
Aridâ modo pumice expolitum?
Corneli, tibi: namque tu solebas
Meas esse aliquid putare nugas
Jam tum, quum ausus es unus Italorum
Omne ævum tribus explicare chartis
Doctis, Jupiter, et laboriosis.
Quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli
Qualecumque; quod, patrona virgo,
Plus uno maneat perenne sæclo.

I saw a blog somewhere that was built around the idea going through the poems of Catullus, one by one, and commenting on and translating them. (I don't have a link; this was a random thing I came across going through some search results, and I can't find it again.) In any event there are probably a lot of people who do similar things, probably with all kinds of content (I would bet that Shakespeare's sonnets lead the pack.)

So I thought, what the hell, it might be fun to throw up the occasional poem and a few thoughts on it. I'm not going to offer a translation, though, since I find that that really ruins poetry, and it's counter-productive to share a poem you appreciate if in so doing you make it seem unattractive. It would just give the impression that I like unattractive poems to those who can't read Latin, reducing my audience to those who can. But in that case there's no need for a translation. Anyway, this first one is pretty easy to read; the only external context that it helps to have is knowing that Cornelius Nepos, whom the poet is addressing, wrote a three-volume history of Rome. (It says as much right there in the poem, but anything said poetically is easier to figure out if you're already aware of the facts.)

Anyway then, on to some thoughts on this Catullus' introduction to his libellus: It is a pretty darn impressive way to start a collection! From the very beginning it is clear that he indeed does wield language in a way that is expolitus arida pumice. I do always find it odd how in so many Latin poems you get these proper names in the vocative. Here it of course makes since, since it is a dedication, but Catullus does it all the time. Every time I see these references to random people this funny little epigram from Martial pops into my head:

Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere quare.
    Hoc tantum possum dicere: non amo te.

What a way for Sabidius to be remembered two millenia later! Other than that remark, for me the absolute best part of this poem comes at the end: Quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli qualecumque. Something about that construction habe tibi just strikes me as particularly quaint and pleasant. This poem starts out asking itself a question and immediately answering it (tibi!), so we know from the get-go that the poet is having a little fun, almost childishly, even as he goes on to express real gratitude to Cornelius. Lepidus indeed!

Finally, the almost throw-away reference to the patrona virgo hardly qualifies as an invocation of the muse; it's ironic to me that Lucretius invokes his Venus more sincerely than Catullus does his Minerva, though I know it has more to do with the type of poem than anything deliberate on either's part. That said Catullus' invocation of Jupiter could be considered somewhat blasphemous—although I suppose the pagans didn't really have such a concept, rooted as it is in the decalogue.