Wednesday, 2 December 2015

ON THE BURIAL OF HIS BROTHER: GAIUS VALERIUS CATULLUS


Faring thro' many a folk and plowing many a sea-plain,
These sad funeral-rites (Brother!) to deal thee I come,
So wi' the latest boons to the dead bestowed I may gift thee,
And I may vainly address ashes that answer have none,
Sithence of thee, very thee, to deprive me Fortune behested,
Woe for thee, Brother forlore! Cruelly severed fro' me.

Yet in the meanwhile now what olden usage of forbears,
Brings as the boons that befit mournfullest funeral rites,
Thine be these gifts which flow with tear-flood shed by thy brother,
And for ever and aye (Brother!) all hail and farewell.

Carmina (ed. Sir Richard Francis Burton) poem 101.


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