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"Catullus
4"
in the original Latin
A. E. Stallings
reads
The Caique (Catullus 4)
in Real Audio
format.
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Visitors, you see this boat?
It used to be, it claims (I quote),
The speediest of craft afloat,
No ship that it could not out-soar
Either under sail or oar!
Not snarling Adriatic shore
Nor Cyclades, nor Noble Rhodes
Nor icy Thrace nor brutal coast
Of Black Sea can deny its boast.
Before a boat, a leafy forest
It stood there on Mount Cytorus,
Its hair a-rustle with susurrus.
Amastris, where the boxwoods grow,
On your peak (it says you know)
It stood from birth. The sea below
Was where it got its paddles wet.
Thence, carrying its master, set
Through raging straits, whether it met
Left wind or right, or following
Breeze set the sail billowing.
It had to make no offering
To the shore gods for its sake
When, the last trip it would take,
It left the sea for this clear lake.
Now, growing old, its journey through,
It dedicates itself to you,
Castor, and your twin brother too.
— Translated from the Latin of Catullus
by A. E. Stallings
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