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Home  »  library  »  poem  »  A Morning Call

C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

A Morning Call

By Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84–c. 54 B.C.)

Paraphrase of Walter Savage Landor

VARUS would take me t’other day

To see a little girl he knew,—

Pretty and witty in her way,

With impudence enough for two.

Scarce are we seated, ere she chatters

(As pretty girls are wont to do)

About all persons, places, matters:—

“And pray, what has been done for you?”

“Bithynia, lady!” I replied,

“Is a fine province for a prætor;

For none (I promise you) beside,

And least of all am I her debtor.”

“Sorry for that!” said she. “However,

You have brought with you, I dare say,

Some litter-bearers; none so clever

In any other part as they.

“Bithynia is the very place

For all that’s steady, tall, and straight;

It is the nature of the race.

Could you not lend me six or eight?”

“Why, six or eight of them or so,”

Said I, determined to be grand;

“My fortune is not quite so low

But these are still at my command.”

“You’ll send them?”—“Willingly!” I told her,

Although I had not here or there

One who could carry on his shoulder

The leg of an old broken chair.

“Catullus! what a charming hap is

Our meeting in this sort of way!

I would be carried to Serapis

To-morrow!”—“Stay, fair lady, stay!

“You overvalue my intention.

Yes, there are eight … there may be nine:

I merely had forgot to mention

That they are Cinna’s, and not mine.”