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Catullus 50

Catullus  commemorates a day of leisure and verse writing, and the pain he feels at Licinius Calvus' departure.

Click on the words in the poem below to get vocabulary information.

Please, if you see errors, let me know about them so I can fix them!

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Hesterno, Licini, die otiosi
multum lusimus in meis tabellis,
ut convenerat esse delicatos:
scribens versiculos uterque nostrum
ludebat numero modo hoc modo illoc,.....................5
reddens mutua per iocum atque vinum.
atque illinc abii tuo lepore
incensus, Licini, facetiisque,
ut nec me miserum cibus iuvaret
nec somnus tegeret quiete ocellos,..........................10
sed toto indomitus furore lecto
versarer, cupiens videre lucem,
ut tecum loquerer simulque ut essem.
at defessa labore membra postquam
semimortua lectulo iacebant,...................................15
hoc, iucunde, tibi poema feci,
ex quo perspiceres meum dolorem.
nunc audax cave sis, precesque nostras,
oramus, cave despuas, ocelle, 
ne poenas Nemesis reposcat a te............................20
est vemens dea: laedere hanc caveto.

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Meter: hendecasyllabics.
1. hesterno: with die.
3. ut convenerat: "as it had been agreed upon"; 
delicatos
is genre specific to Catullus and his circle. It can have the meaning of friends, drinking buddies, etc.
5. numero modo hoc modo illoc: "now in this meter, now in that".
6. mutua: dir. obj of reddens. It is being used substantively.
11. furore: Ablative of Description.
16. hoc: modifies the Greek Accusative singular poema
iucunde, ocelle (line 19) are Vocatives modifying Calvus.
20. Nemesis: the Greek goddess of retribution.
21. caveto: future imperative.
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last updated October 17, 2003
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