Catullus, 101 (Funeral Rites)

translation by Katherine Ashewode

Original Latin is in elegaic couplets. The translation is a "mini-sonnet": iambic pentameters, with two quatrains and a couplet, rhyme scheme: abab, cdcd, ee.

Original Latin

Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem,
quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi.
nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.

Verse Translation

Through many lands and sailing over waves
I come to last at this unhappy place
to put the gifts of death upon your grave
and speak in vain to your unans'ring face.

My brother fair that fate has snatched from me,
alas that you were taken far too soon,
but now accept the rites that are the fee
our fathers set for men who meet their doom.

These sorry gifts are soaked with tears I cry,
forever, brother, rest in peace, goodbye.

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