Poems of Catullus

Poem 11: A fallen flower

Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli,

siue in extremos penetrabit Indos,

litus ut longe resonante Eoa

tunditur unda,

siue in Hyrcanos Arabesue molles,

seu Sagas sagittiferosue Parthos,

siue quae septemgeminus colorat

aequora Nilus,

siue trans altas gradietur Alpes,

Caesaris uisens monimenta magni,

Gallicum Rhenum, horribile uitro ulti-

mosque Britannos,

omnia haec, quaecumque feret uoluntas

caelitum, temptare simul parati,

pauca nuntiate meae puellae

non bona dicta.

'cum suis uiuat ualeatque moechis,

quos simul complexa tenet trecentos,

nullum amans uere, sed identidem omnium

ilia rumpens;

nec meum respectet, ut ante, amorem,

qui illius culpa cecidit uelut prati

ultimi flos, praetereunte postquam

tactus aratro est.'

Aurelius, Furius, mates of Catullus –

whether he’ll probe the extreme Indies,

where the eastern wave slams on the shore,

resounding afar,

or Hyrcani or soft Arabs, 5

or Sacae or archer Parthians,

or flats that seven-branching Nile

discolours to dark,

or cross the lofty Alps, surveying

the monuments of mighty Caesar, 10

the Gallic Rhine and distant Britons,

alarmingly dyed –

prepared together to face all this

(whatever the will of the heavens will bring),

deliver these words to my girl, 15

unflattering and brief:

‘Let her live and thrive with her rakes,

embracing three hundred at once,

in love with none truly, ball-busting

the lot without end. 20

Let her not look for my love as before –

just like a flower at a meadow’s

edge touched by a passing plough, it’s fallen,

through failing of hers.’

Notes
A key poem showing that Catullus had finally got over his relationship with Lesbia as he seems to be rebuffing her renewed solicitations. The references to Julius Caesar, the Gallic Rhine and Britain suggest a date of 55-54 BC, six-seven years after they first met.

The poem is full of ironic contrasts. There’s the lofty language of the first three stanzas followed by the brutal denouement of the fifth stanza, then the simile of Catullus’ love as a fragile flower cut down by a rough plough. The ‘mates of Catullus’ are hardly friends: Furius is probably the poet Furius Bibaculus, mentioned unfavourably in four other poems; Aurelius is unknown, mentioned equally unfavourably in three other poems. The references to Caesar as magnus and his achievements as monimenta are also ambivalent as Catullus is usually disparaging about him, though he may have made up with him to some extent by this date. It seems Catullus was thinking of another attachment abroad, and it could have been with Caesar and Aurelius and Furius – hence the ‘flattery’ to Caesar and the ironic reference to messenger boys Aurelius and Furius as comites, i.e. mates or comrades.

The Latin metre is sapphics; so the metre used to mark the beginning of his love affair – see A god's equal (after Sappho) (Poem 51) – is now used to signal its close. In the English translation, tetrameters are used for the first three lines of each stanza, and dimeters for the fourth line (an iamb followed by an anapaest).