When we discuss poem 16, we'll want to keep poems 15 and 21 in mind, so it wouldn't be a bad idea to review those poems.

Sorry, it's about 572K--a little big for one page.

You may look here for some additional help in translating poems 8, 9, and 10. The linked image is a scan from Garrison's commentary on Catullus. (Warning: the images are somewhat large, so they'll load slowly on a dialup connection.)

If the image that comes up in your browser is too small to read, try saving the link as a file (right-click on it in your browser) and view it in another program. If you're using a mac, try Preview; if you're using Windows, just double-click on the saved file and see what happens.

You could also try looking at John Thorburn's Catullus hypertext.

(I've been informed that I might have said Catullus 7 in class, but I meant to say 6. So stick to the schedule I handed out.)

Phasellus ille, quem videtis, hospites,
ait fuisse navium celerrimus,
neque ullius natantis impetum trabis
nequisse praeterire, sive palmulis
opus foret volare sive linteo.
et hoc negat minacis Hadriatici
negare litus insulasve Cycladas
Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thraciam
Propontida trucemve Ponticum sinum
(ubi iste post phasellus antea fuit
comata silva--nam Cytorio in iugo
loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma).

Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer,
tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
ait phasellus; ultima ex origine
tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine,
tuo imbuisse palmulas in aequore,
et inde tot per impotentia freta
erum tulisse, laeva sive dextera
vocaret aura, sive utrumque Iuppiter
simul secundus incidisset in pedem;
neque ulla vota litoralibus diis
sibi esse facta, cum veniret a mari
novissimo hunc ad usque limpidum lacum.

sed haec prius fuere: nunc recondita
senet quiete seque dedicat tibi,
gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.

In fact, it might be a good idea to review Quinn's commentary for poem 2, lines 5-6 to understand what's going on with carum nescio quid ... iocari. Remember that nescio quid is an idiomatic phrase and that nescio doesn't have genuine verbal force; it's sometimes written as one word, nescioquid, and with a partitive genitive, can be translated as "some sort of."

We'll be going through the poems in order for awhile, so if you want to read ahead, feel free.

You must acquire a copy of this text: as the syllabus says, this is a required text. In the short term, you can get photocopies from me, but YOU MUST ACQUIRE THIS TEXT.

You should call the bookstore and see if they can get copies for you, or you can try to obtain used copies from amazon or alibris (the best way to locate the book is to search by ISBN: 0333017870).

You can find the text of the poem here.

You can find my commentary for the poem here.

Both of these documents are in .pdf format, which any modern operating system should be able to deal with; most web browsers can read .pdfs without any user intervention. If you have a mac running OS X and your browser tries to download pdfs instead of displaying them in the browser window, you might want to install the SchubertIt plugin.

The quiz on Wednesday will cover all of Amores 1.1, all of the Pygmalion episode, and lines 154-end of the Pyramus and Thisbe episode.

Click here for a .pdf version of the commentary.

Or here for a plain old webpage version.

Or here for a text version that you can edit in a word processor.