Catullus 108 Translation
Introduction
In this poem, Catullus shares his feelings about Cominius and those feelings are not filled with love. In line one, Catullus comments on Cominius’s gray old age and his soiled, impure life. In line two, Catullus suggests that the people might decide to bring his old age to an end.
Then, Catullus gets involved in how he wants to bring about the end of Cominius’s life. In lines three and four, he starts with Cominius’s tongue which is the enemy of all good people and should be cut out and fed to a vulture. Catullus then wants to see Cominius’s eyes torn out and eaten by a raven. At the end of the poem, Catullus wants dogs to eat his bowels and wolves to eat his penis.
This violent poem show Catullus’s dark side. It also shows that the ancient poet lived in a culture where someone’s body could be despoiled by vultures, ravens, dogs, and wolves. While in today’s culture, dogs are beloved pets, in ancient Rome they weren’t much more than scavengers who ate carcasses in the same way that vultures and ravens did.
Interestingly, in many of Catullus’s poems, he calls characters impure based on their sexual relationships. There is a sexual reference at the end of the poem when Catullus wishes that Cominius’s member is devoured by wolves. Those wolves could be literal, or they could be figurative people who could destroy him.
Cominius was a Roman consul who was eventually appointed the first dictator. During his time as leader, there were hostilities with the Latins and slaves. He was not a beloved leader but was one that the people wished would die. Shakespeare makes him into a character into Coriolanus, but he is the opposite of the character Catullus talks about in this poem. Of course, Shakespeare wrote his works long after Catullus’s death, but the character is based on the same historical figure.
Carmen 108
Line | Latin text | English translation |
|---|---|---|
1 | SI, Comini, populi arbitrio tua cana senectus | IF, Cominius, your gray old age, soiled as it is by an impure life, |
2 | spurcata impuris moribus intereat, | should be brought to an end by the choice of the people, |
3 | non equidem dubito quin primum inimica bonorum | I for my part do not doubt that first of all your tongue, the enemy of all good people, |
4 | lingua exsecta auido sit data uulturio, | would be cut out and quickly given to the greedy vulture, |
5 | effossos oculos uoret atro gutture coruus, | your eyes torn out and swallowed down the raven's black throat, |
6 | intestina canes, cetera membra lupi | while the dogs would devour your bowels, the rest of your members the wolves. |
