| PHASELLUS ILLE QUEM VIDETIS, ... | THE LITTLE BOAT YOU SEE BEFORE YOU ... |
| Catullus (Gaius Valerius Catullus) | tr. David Lisle Crane |
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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. |
The little boat you see before you, friends, Was once, she says, unbeatable for speed, And nothing on the sea, she says, could catch her, With oar or sail ... The truth of this the stormy Adriatic Could testify, the Cyclades, or Rhodes, The Thracian or the savage Pontic sea, Where she was first a tree ... There too, on Cytorus, she felt the wind, And boxwood slopes beside the Black Sea port Would know that from her very birth she stood Upon the topmost peak ... Then first in those far waves she dipped her oars And brought her master home through raging seas, Tacking to right or left or running straight Before the wind ... No votive gifts for her to sea-shore gods, Since she was safe from her first setting out To cross the deep from furthest ocean's bounds To this smooth pool ... But all these things are past and she grows old, And dreaming gently in these quiet streams Returns her thanks for all that she has been To the twin gods. |
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Transl. Copyright © David Crane 2000 - publ. New Century Press