Daisy Dunn translates the first two lines as “I shall fuck you anally and orally/Cock-in-mouth Aurelius and sodomite Furius.” Charles Martin has “I’ll fuck the pair of you as you prefer it,/oral Aurelius, anal Furius.” Peter Green falls flat, “Up yours both, and sucks to the pair of you,/Queen Aurelius, Furius the faggot.” The witty violence doesn’t map into English easily. Best to understand the sense, then stick with the Latin for the music.
Now when Miss Dunbar set me that poem in fourth week many years ago, this would have been useful. The College Latin dictionary translated the rude words into Greek and the Greek into Latin. I had to go into a tutorial with “I want to something you and something you, you something and something”. Miss D not impressed though how a teenage convent-school-educated innocent was supposed to guess was beyond me.
My copy had a glossary, but like Fiona's college dictionary, only gave the Greek (pardon the expression). I eventually found a footnote, with irrumare = 'mentulam in os insererre'.
Oops, wrong declension. I blame the word's absence from the glossary. I did eventually work it out (this was pre-internet, so no PornHub tutorials) and suddenly C's wisecracks about bad breath made sense.
A cliché — but Catullus is just as fresh today as he was 2000 years ago. I’ve been studying his poems for the last few months, gradually improving my high school Latin. Every hour of work is a treat, observing how he does what he does.
I didn't read this poem in school or university until a lektor did a course about mythology. Priapus opened the gates. Certain passages in Apuleius' The Golden Ass et al. followed and I am still grateful for puns and jokes and lewd tales and poetry so far from the usual stuff.
I can’t think why, but I feel that Cautullus would have been more comfortable with “up the arse” rather than “in the bum.”
But really, how comfortable would one want him to be?
I imagine he savoured discomfort.
Well, he could be a bit impatient if he was uncomfortably over-extended…https://substack.com/home/post/p-140444764
Daisy Dunn translates the first two lines as “I shall fuck you anally and orally/Cock-in-mouth Aurelius and sodomite Furius.” Charles Martin has “I’ll fuck the pair of you as you prefer it,/oral Aurelius, anal Furius.” Peter Green falls flat, “Up yours both, and sucks to the pair of you,/Queen Aurelius, Furius the faggot.” The witty violence doesn’t map into English easily. Best to understand the sense, then stick with the Latin for the music.
I prefer mine 🤨
Now when Miss Dunbar set me that poem in fourth week many years ago, this would have been useful. The College Latin dictionary translated the rude words into Greek and the Greek into Latin. I had to go into a tutorial with “I want to something you and something you, you something and something”. Miss D not impressed though how a teenage convent-school-educated innocent was supposed to guess was beyond me.
My copy had a glossary, but like Fiona's college dictionary, only gave the Greek (pardon the expression). I eventually found a footnote, with irrumare = 'mentulam in os insererre'.
But mentulus was undefined.
mentula = quod pathicus in os inserit 😁
Oops, wrong declension. I blame the word's absence from the glossary. I did eventually work it out (this was pre-internet, so no PornHub tutorials) and suddenly C's wisecracks about bad breath made sense.
A cliché — but Catullus is just as fresh today as he was 2000 years ago. I’ve been studying his poems for the last few months, gradually improving my high school Latin. Every hour of work is a treat, observing how he does what he does.
I didn't read this poem in school or university until a lektor did a course about mythology. Priapus opened the gates. Certain passages in Apuleius' The Golden Ass et al. followed and I am still grateful for puns and jokes and lewd tales and poetry so far from the usual stuff.
Hahaha 😝 There’s a message for me in this somewhere. I’m working on it‼️🫡