Page:The poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus - Francis Warre Cornish.djvu/85



Youths. The evening is come, rise up, ye youths. Vesper from Olympus now at last is just raising his long looked-for light. Now is it time to rise, now to leave the rich tables; now will come the bride, now will the Hymen-song be sung. Hymen, O Hymenaeus, Hymen, be present, O Hymenaeus!

Maidens. See ye, maidens, the youths? Rise up to meet them. For sure the night star shews his Oetaean fires. So it is indeed; see you how nimbly they have sprung up? it is not for nothing that they have sprung up: they will sing something which it is worth while to look at. Hymen, O Hymenaeus, Hymen, be present, O Hymenaeus!

Youths. No easy palm is set out for us, comrades; look how the maidens are conning what they have learnt. Not in vain do they learn, they have something worth remembering; no wonder, since they labour deeply with their whole mind. We have distracted elsewhere our thoughts, elsewhere our ears; fairly then shall we be beaten; victory loves care. Wherefore now at least match your minds with theirs. Anon they will begin to speak, anon it will be fitting for us to answer. Hymen, O Hymenaeus, Hymen, be present, O Hymenaeus!

Maidens. Hesperus, what more cruel fire moves in the sky? for thou canst endure to tear the daughter from her mother's embrace, from her mother's embrace to tear the clinging daughter, and give the chaste maiden to the burning youth. What more cruel than this do enemies when a city falls? Hymen, O Hymenaeus, Hymen, be present, O Hymenaeus!