„Těžké je skoncovat naráz s láskou, jež trvala dlouho.“
— Gaius Valerius Catullus
DIFFICILE EST LONGUM SUBITO DEPONERE AMOREM
Gaius Valerius Catullus citáty
9 2102
Gaius Valerius Catullus
Datum narození: 84 př. n. l.
Datum úmrtí: 54 př. n. l.
Další jména: Catullus, Catullus Gaius Valerius, Гай Валерий Катулл
Gaius Valerius Catullus byl římský básník. Pocházel z veronské aristokratické rodiny, v jejímž domě se zastavil dokonce Gaius Iulius Caesar. Catullus náležel do skupiny neoteriků a orientoval se především na tvorbu helénistického básníka Kallimacha. Jeho carmina m.j. zhudebnil Carl Orff
Citáty Gaius Valerius Catullus
„Zahálka i krále i kdysi šťastná zhubila města.“
— Gaius Valerius Catullus
OTIUM ET REGES PRIUS ET BEATAS PERDIDIT URBES
„Nic není tak hloupé jako hloupý smích.“
— Gaius Valerius Catullus
RISU INEPTO RES INEPTIOR NULLA EST
„Co říká žena toužícímu milenci, může se napsat do větru a prudké vody.“
— Gaius Valerius Catullus
MULIER CUPIDO QUOD DICIT AMANTI, IN VENTO ET RAPIDA SCRIBERE OPORTET AQUA
„Idleness ere now has ruined both kings and wealthy cities.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
LI, last lines
„Suns may set and rise again. For us, when the short light has once set, remains to be slept the sleep of one unbroken night.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Context: Let us live, my Lesbia, and love, and value at one farthing all the talk of crabbed old men. Suns may set and rise again. For us, when the short light has once set, remains to be slept the sleep of one unbroken night.
V, lines 1–6
Thomas Campion's translation:
My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love;
And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,
Let us not weigh them: Heaven's great lamps do dive
Into their west, and straight again revive,
But, soon as once set is our little light,
Then must we sleep one ever-during night.
From A Book of Airs (1601)
„Ah, what is more blessed than to put cares away, when the mind lays by its burden, and tired with labour of far travel we have come to our own home and rest on the couch we longed for? This it is which alone is worth all these toils.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, O quid solutis est beatius curis,
cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino
labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum,
desideratoque acquiescimus lecto?
hoc est quod unum est pro laboribus tantis.
XXXI, lines 7–11
„Wandering through many countries and over many seas I come, my brother, to these sorrowful obsequies, to present you with the last guerdon of death, and speak, though in vain, to your silent ashes, since fortune has taken your own self away from me—alas, my brother, so cruelly torn from me! Yet now meanwhile take these offerings, which by the custom of our fathers have been handed down—a sorrowful tribute—for a funeral sacrifice; take them, wet with many tears of a brother, and for ever, my brother, hail and farewell!“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
Advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
Ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
Et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.
Quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
Heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,
Nunc tamen interea haec prisco quae more parentum
Tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
Accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
Atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
CI, lines 1–10
Sir William Marris's translation:
By many lands and over many a wave
I come, my brother, to your piteous grave,
To bring you the last offering in death
And o'er dumb dust expend an idle breath;
For fate has torn your living self from me,
And snatched you, brother, O, how cruelly!
Yet take these gifts, brought as our fathers bade
For sorrow's tribute to the passing shade;
A brother's tears have wet them o'er and o'er;
And so, my brother, hail, and farewell evermore!
„He seems to me to be equal to a god, he, if it may be, seems to surpass the very gods, who sitting opposite thee again and again gazes at thee and hears thee sweetly laughing.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Ille mi par esse Deo videtur,
ille, si fas est, superare Divos,
qui sedens adversus identidem te
spectat et audit
dulce ridentem.
LI, lines 1–5. Cf. Sappho 31.
„I hate and love. Why I do so, perhaps you ask. I know not, but I feel it, and I am in torment.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Odi et amo. quare id faciam, fortasse requiris.
nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.
LXXXV, lines 1–2
„It is difficult suddenly to lay aside a long-standing love.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Difficile est longum subito deponere amorem.
LXXVI, line 13
„Henceforth let no woman believe a man's oath, let none believe that a man's speeches can be trustworthy. They, while their mind desires something and longs eagerly to gain it, nothing fear to swear, nothing spare to promise; but as soon as the lust of their greedy mind is satisfied, they fear not then their words, they heed not their perjuries.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Nunc iam nulla viro iuranti femina credat,
nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles;
quis dum aliquid cupiens animus praegestit apisci,
nil metuunt iurare, nihil promittere parcunt:
sed simul ac cupidae mentis satiata libido est,
dicta nihil metuere, nihil periuria curant.
LXIV
„All right and wrong, confounded in impious madness, turned from us the righteous will of the gods.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Omnia fanda nefanda malo permixta furore
iustificam nobis mentem avertere deorum.
LXIV
„There is nothing more silly than a silly laugh.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Nam risu inepto res ineptior nulla est.
XXXIX, line 16
„To this point is my mind reduced by your fault, Lesbia, and has so ruined itself by its own devotion, that now it can neither wish you well though you should become the best of women, nor cease to love you though you do the worst that can be done.“
— Gaio Valerio Catullo, list of poems by Catullus
Carmina, Huc est mens deducta tua mea, Lesbia, culpa
atque ita se officio perdidit ipsa suo,
ut iam nec bene velle queat tibi, si optima fias,
nec desistere amare, omnia si facias.
LXXV, lines 1–4
