Dinner with friends (Catullus 13)
Catullus’ joking dinner invitation, in which he asks Fabullus to come over and bring the food along with him, is really a lovely tribute to friendship, argues Ariel Caruso. Catullus 13, read, translated, and discussed by Ariel Caruso.
Cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me
paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,
si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam
cenam, non sine candida puella
et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis. 5
haec si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster,
cenabis bene: nam tui Catulli
plenus sacculus est aranearum.
sed contra accipies meros amores
seu quid suavius elegantiusvest: 10
nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque;
quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis,
totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.
latin-poetry-podcast Said,
May 17, 2012 @ 2:23 pm
The Latin sounds very good, Ariel. Nice job sketching out all the different things going on in the poem, which is more complicated than it looks, as you show.