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

[seishonagon.livejournal.com]

Yay! Another triumph.

I love the way the interlocking between poems 7 and 5 is replicated in your translations of both poems. Lovely. :)

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

You have made it a beautiful day. Two beautiful days in a row, by the clock.

I was puzzled how you would work all the proper names in there. You've done well with it, in my not at all scholarly or informed opinion. There was a lot to stumble over, and nothing went splat.

"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

[cucumberseed.livejournal.com]

Okay, that's awesome.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Oh, beautifully done!

Nine

[tithenai.livejournal.com]

*absolutely awed*

[larryhammer]

Excellent.

---L.

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

...Catullus was a huge geography geek, wasn't he?

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Tis lovely, this, and I'm regretting I amn't better able to find a phrase worthy of it.