Gaius Valerius Catullus, Carmina (ed. Sir Richard Francis Burton)

Editions and translations: Latin (ed. E. T. Merrill) | English (ed. Sir Richard Francis Burton) | English (ed. Leonard C. Smithers)
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Nuptial Song By Youths And Damsels

Epithalamium

Youths
Vesper is here, O youths, rise all; for Vesper Olympus
Scales and in fine enfires what lights so long were expected!
Time 'tis now to arise, now leave we tables rich laden,
Now shall the Virgin come; now chaunt we the Hymenaeus.
Hymen O Hymenaeus: Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Damsels
View ye the Youths, O Maids unwed? Then rise to withstand them:
Doubtless the night-fraught Star displays his splendour Oetean.
Sooth 'tis so; d'ye sight how Speedily sprang they to warfare?
Nor for a naught up-sprang: they'll Sing what need we to conquer.
Hymen O Hymenaeus: Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Youths
Nowise easy the palm for us (Companions!) be proffer'd,
Lo! now the maidens muse and meditate matter of forethought
Nor meditate they in vain; they muse a humorous something.
Yet naught wonder it is, their sprites be wholly in labour.
We bear divided thought one way and hearing in other:
Vanquish't by right we must be, since Victory loveth the heedful.
Therefore at least d'ye turn your minds the task to consider,
Soon shall begin their say whose countersay shall befit you.
Hymen O Hymenaeus: Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Damsels
Hesperus! say what flame more cruel in Heaven be fanned?
Thou who the girl perforce canst tear from a mother's embraces,
Tear from a parent's clasp her child despite of her clinging
And upon love-hot youth bestowest her chastest of maidenhoods!
What shall the foeman deal more cruel to city becaptured?
Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Youths
Hesperus! say what flame more gladsome in Heavens be shining?
Thou whose light makes sure long-pledged connubial promise
Plighted erewhile by men and erstwhile plighted by parents.
Yet to be ne'er fulfilled before thy fire's ardours have risen!
What better boon can the gods bestow than hour so desirèd?
Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Damsels
Hesperus! one of ourselves (Companions!) carried elsewhither
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Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Youths
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For at thy coming in sight a guard is constantly watching.
Hidden o'nights lurk thieves and these as oft as returnest,
Hesper! thou seizest them with title changed to Eous.
Pleases the bevy unwed with feigned complaints to accuse thee.
What if assail they whom their souls in secrecy cherish?
Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Damsels
E'en as a flow'ret born secluded in garden enclosed,
Unto the flock unknown and ne'er uptorn by the ploughshare,
Soothed by the zephyrs and strengthened by suns and nourish't by showers
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Loves her many a youth and longs for her many a maiden:
Yet from her lissome stalk when cropt that flower deflowered,
Loves her never a youth nor longs for her ever a maiden:
Thus while the virgin be whole, such while she's the dearling of kinsfolk;
Yet no sooner is lost her bloom from body polluted,
Neither to youths she is joy, nor a dearling she to the maidens.
Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Youths
E'en as an unmated vine which born in field of the barest
Never upraises head nor breeds the mellowy grape-bunch,
But under weight prone-bowed that tender body a-bending
Makes she her root anon to touch her topmost of tendrils;
Tends her never a hind nor tends her ever a herdsman:
Yet if haply conjoined the same with elm as a husband,
Tends her many a hind and tends her many a herdsman:
Thus is the maid when whole, uncultured waxes she aged;
But whenas union meet she wins her at ripest of seasons,
More to her spouse she is dear and less she's irk to her parents.
Hymen O Hymenaeus, Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

Youths and Damsels
But do thou cease to resist (O Maid!) such bridegroom opposing,
Right it is not to resist whereto consigned thee a father,
Father and mother of thee unto whom obedience is owing.
Not is that maidenhood all thine own, but partly thy parents!
Owneth thy sire one third, one third is right of thy mother,
Only the third is thine: stint thee to strive with the others,
Who to the stranger son have yielded their dues with a dower!
Hymen O Hymenaeus: Hymen here, O Hymenaeus!

There are a total of 121 comments on and cross references to this page.

Cross references from E. T. Merrill, Commentary on Catullus:
* [Poems.]
* [Poems.]
* [Poems.]
* [Poems.]
* [Manuscripts.]
* [Metres.]
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*: quid tum
* [Prosody.]
*
*: virgo intacta
*
*
*
*
* [Prosody.]
*
*
*
*
*
*

Cross references from Anne Mahoney, Overview of Latin Syntax:
pass [Passive]: Quid datur a divis felici optatius hora

Cross references from Sir Richard Jebb, Commentary on Sophocles: Antigone:
* [806-943]

Cross references from W. Walter Merry, James Riddell, D. B. Monro, Commentary on the Odyssey (1886):
4, 335 [Book 4 (d)]

Cross references from Walter Leaf, Commentary on the Iliad (1900):
17, 55 [Book 17 (R)]: ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis -- quem mulcent aurae, firmat sol, educat imber

Cross references from Harry Thurston Peck, Harpers Dictionary of Classical Antiquities (1898):
matrimonium [Matrimonium]
matrimonium [Matrimonium]

Cross references from W. M. Lindsay, Syntax of Plautus:
8, 2 [dum]: sic virgo, dum intacta manet, dum cara suis est

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This text is based on the following book(s):
Catullus. Carmina. Sir Richard Francis Burton. trans. London. For translator for private use. 1894.
OCLC: 878062