56
O rem ridiculam, Cato, et iocosam
Dignamque auribus et tuo cachinno.
Ride, quidquid amas, Cato, Catullum:
Res est ridicula et nimis iocosa.
Deprendi modo pupulum puellae
Trusantem: hunc ego, si placet Dionae,
Pro telo rigida mea cecidi.
My translation:
Oh my gods, Cato, what a hil-a-rious thing,
It deserves your ears and jeers!
Roll your eyes at Catullus, whatever you like, Cato:
But this is gut-busting and too funny.
I caught out, just now, a kid and a girl
Fucking; and I hope Diona agrees with me,
Because I bonked him silly, not with a weapon but with my hard-on.
Obviously there's some heavy paraphrasing going on, and I admit that it's not a literal translation, but I really wanted it to retain it's full comedic force. Other translations I find translate relatively faithfully, but somehow they don't seem to get what Catullus was going for.
Ride = smile/chuckle at Catullus, but I chose a different idiom that I felt carried the same patronising sense.
si placet Dionae = if it is agreeable to Diona, but I thought that was too stilted in English.
I love how he enjambs 'trusantem' and 'cecidi' to the end. I love his satire of ditzy, banal jokes. Basically I love Catullus.
O rem ridiculam, Cato, et iocosam
Dignamque auribus et tuo cachinno.
Ride, quidquid amas, Cato, Catullum:
Res est ridicula et nimis iocosa.
Deprendi modo pupulum puellae
Trusantem: hunc ego, si placet Dionae,
Pro telo rigida mea cecidi.
My translation:
Oh my gods, Cato, what a hil-a-rious thing,
It deserves your ears and jeers!
Roll your eyes at Catullus, whatever you like, Cato:
But this is gut-busting and too funny.
I caught out, just now, a kid and a girl
Fucking; and I hope Diona agrees with me,
Because I bonked him silly, not with a weapon but with my hard-on.
Obviously there's some heavy paraphrasing going on, and I admit that it's not a literal translation, but I really wanted it to retain it's full comedic force. Other translations I find translate relatively faithfully, but somehow they don't seem to get what Catullus was going for.
Ride = smile/chuckle at Catullus, but I chose a different idiom that I felt carried the same patronising sense.
si placet Dionae = if it is agreeable to Diona, but I thought that was too stilted in English.
I love how he enjambs 'trusantem' and 'cecidi' to the end. I love his satire of ditzy, banal jokes. Basically I love Catullus.
