Chapter 70 of 129

LVIIII.

The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus · Gaius Valerius Catullus

LVIIII.

ON RUFA.

Rúfa the Bolognese drains Rufule dry, (Wife to Menenius) she 'mid tombs you'll spy, The same a-snatching supper from the pyre Following the bread-loaves rolling forth the fire Till frapped by half-shaved body-burner's ire. 5

Rufa of Bononia lends her lips to Rufulus, she the wife of Menenius, whom oft among the sepulchres ye have seen clutching her meal from the funeral pile, when pursuing the bread which has rolled from the fire, whilst she was being buffeted by a semi-shorn corpse-burner.

LX.

Num te leaena montibus Libystinis Aut Scylla latrans infima inguinum parte Tam mente dura procreavit ac taetra, Vt supplicis vocem in novissimo casu Contemptam haberes a! nimis fero corde? 5

LX.

TO A CRUEL CHARMER.

Bare thee some lioness wild in Lybian wold? Or Scylla barking from low'st inguinal fold? With so black spirit, of so dure a mould, E'en voice of suppliant must thou disregard In latest circumstance ah, heart o'er hard? 5

Did a lioness of the Libyan Hills, or Scylla yelping from her lowmost groin, thee procreate, with mind so hard and horrid, that thou hast contempt upon a suppliant's voice in calamity's newest stress? O heart o'ergreatly cruel.

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