One plays a poet who starts up a band of his own

[sovay]

For asakiyume, Catullus 7:

You ask me how many of those kisses
of yours, Lesbia, are enough and more?
As many as number the sands of Libya
that lie in Cyrene rich in silphium
between the oracle of sultry Jupiter
and Battus the ancestor's sacred tomb
or as many stars as in the silenced night
watch the stolen loves of mortals—
to kiss you so many of those kisses
is, for crazy Catullus, enough and more,
which the curious will never tally up
nor use with wicked tongue to cast a spell.

Comments

"or as many stars as in the silenced night..."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Stars salt the sky, that we may feast upon it
Let me slice this darkness for you
You take it, eat, then kiss me
So I may taste it on your lips
And whatever stars may linger on them
Those last faint shining flakes
You have not claimed
With your own tongue

[sovay]

Stars salt the sky, that we may feast upon it
Let me slice this darkness for you

SEND THIS SOMEWHERE THERE IS NOT ENOUGH CONTEMPORARY CATULLUS-INSPIRED EROTIC POETRY IN THE WORLD I MEAN IT

I like that.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Thank you for translating Catullus for me and all of us. What beautiful stuff.

Re: "or as many stars as in the silenced night..."

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Wait, wait, I thought it was you having a shake at some fragment of untranslated arcana I had not read. If you wrote that, you have to send it somewhere! I wish I knew where. It is intense, immediate, and rather amazing.

Re: "or as many stars as in the silenced night..."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I wish I was able to translate poetry from Latin! No, that was just me, because of all those stars and kisses...

I will try to send it somewhere. (May have to take it off here, though, if I do...)

Re: "or as many stars as in the silenced night..."

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Well, we'd see it again in print.

Did you just pome right out in the comment field, or had you had it lying by? If you have more like it, you might see if Papaveria Press would do one of their extraordinary little books.

Re: "or as many stars as in the silenced night..."

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Sovay left me her translation in a comment to her previous translation, and after reading it there, and before seeing it here, I got to thinking about the stars as being like salt, and so I was playing with the idea in my head, I guess? But then yeah, I wrote it up in the comment field.

Alas, no more like it... well, or, I mean, I have bunches of poems, but . . . well, maybe one day I'll collect a bunch of them and show them to Erzebet.

Re: "or as many stars as in the silenced night..."

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

Alas, no more like it... well, or, I mean, I have bunches of poems, but . . . well, maybe one day I'll collect a bunch of them and show them to Erzebet.

You are the universe's or just sovay's revenge on me for all these years of whingeing about publishing things well, maybe, kinda, sorta, someday, but who would read them? *laughs*

By which I mean, I understand and offer hugs.

*tips a cup to sovay*
You're right; it is hard making people believe in themselves.