Page:The poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus - Francis Warre Cornish.djvu/123



unnatural mother coupling with her unconscious son did not fear to sin against parental gods: then all right and wrong, confounded in impious madness, turned from us the righteous will of the gods. Wherefore they deign not to visit such companies, nor endure the touch of clear daylight.

To Hor talus.

Though I am worn out with constant grief, Hortalus, and sorrow calls me apart from the learned Maids, nor can the thoughts of my heart utter the sweet births of the Muses, tossed as it is with such waves of trouble; — so lately the creeping wave of the Lethaean flood laps my own brother's death-pale foot, on whom, torn away from our sight, the Trojan earth under the shore of Rhoeteum lies heavy. (^Never shall I speak to thee, never hear thee tell of thy life;) never shall I see thee again, brother more beloved than life. But surely I will always love thee, always sing strains of mournin g for thy death, as under the thick shadows of the boughs sings the Daulian bird bewailing the fate o( Itylus lost. Yet, in such sorrows, Hortalus, I send to you these verses of Battiades translated, lest haply you should think that your words vainly committed to wandering winds have slipped from my mind: as an apple sent as a secret gift from her betrothed lover falls out from the chaste bosom of the girl, which — poor child, she forgot it! — put away in her soft gown, is shaken out as she starts forward when her mother comes; then, see, onward, downward swiftly it rolls and runs; a conscious blush creeps over her downcast face.

14—2