| PHASELLUS ILLE QUEM VIDETIS, ... | THE YACHT |
| Catullus (Gaius Valerius Catullus) | tr. John Hookham Frere |
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Phasellus ille quem videtis, hospites, Ait fuisse navium celerimus, Neque ullius natantis impetum trabis Nequisse praeter ire, sive palmulis Opus foret volare sive linteo. Et hoc negat minacis Hadriatici Negare litus insulasve Cycladas Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thraciam Propontida, trucemve Ponticum sinum, Ubi iste post phasellus antea fuit Comata silva: nam Cytorio in jugo Loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma. Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer, Tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima Ait phasellus; ultima ex origine Tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine, Tuo imbuisse palmulas in aequore, Et inde tot per impotentia freta Erum tulisse, laeva sive dextera Vocaret aura, sive utrumque Juppiter Simul secundus incidisset in pedem; Neque ulla vota litoralibus deis Sibi esse facta, cum veniret a mari Novissimo hunc ad usque limpidum lacum. Sed haec prius fuere: nunc recondita Senet quiete seque dedicat tibi, Gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris. |
Stranger, the bark you see before you says That in old times and in her early days She was a lively vessel that could make The quickest voyages, and overtake All her competitors with sail or oar; And she defies the rude Illyrian shore, And Rhodes with her proud harbor, and the seas That intersect the scattered Cyclades, And the Propontic and the Thracian coast, (Bold as it is) to contradict her boast. She calls to witness the dark Euxine sea And mountains that had known her as a tree, Before her transformation, when she stood A native of the deep Cytorian wood, Where all her ancestors had flourished long, And, with their old traditionary song, Had whispered her responses to the breeze. And waked the chorus of her sister trees. Amastris, from your haven forth she went, You witnessed her first outset and descent, Adventuring on an unknown element. From thence she bore her master safe and free From danger and alarm through many a sea; Nor ever once was known to lag behind, Foremost on every tack, with every wind. At last, to this fair inland lake, she says She came to pass the remnant of her days, Leaving no debt due to the Deities For vows preferred in danger on the seas: Clear of incumbrance, therefore, and all other Contentious claims, to Castor or his brother As a free gift and offering she devotes Herself, as long as she survives and floats. |
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