Welcome
Who is Catullus?  Links
Catullus Forum   Search Translations
 

  Available Hungarian translations:  
 
1 2 2b 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 14b 15 16 17 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
52 53 54 55 56 57 58 58b 59 60
61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 78b 79
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
90 91 92 93 94 95 95b 96 97 98
99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108
109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116
 

  Available languages:  
 
Latin
Afrikaans   Albanian   Arabic
Brazilian Port.   Bulgarian   Castellano
Catalan   Chinese   Croatian
Czech   Danish   Dutch
English   Esperanto   Estonian
Finnish   French   Frisian
German   Greek   Gronings
Hebrew   Hindi   Hungarian
Interlingua   Irish   Italian
Japanese   Korean   Limburgs
Norwegian   Persian   Polish
Portuguese   Rioplatense   Romanian
Russian   Scanned   Serbian
Spanish   Swedish   Telugu
Turkish   Ukrainian   Vercellese
Welsh  
 

  Gaius Valerius Catullus     
About Me
Send a Reaction
Read Reactions
 

 
Catullus Forum

Main  ::  Translations - all  ::  Interpretation of Carmen 2 & 3 (Uncategorized)

<<  •  >>

AuthorMessage
Galatix27
Posted on Sun Dec 12, 2004 23:31:01  
I have had several different Latin teachers over the years, and they have a slight disagreement over the fate of Lesbia's sparrow as mentioned in poems 2 & 3. One teacher says that the poem should be interpreted for face-value, that Catullus is simply mocking the sparrow in poem 2, or that he wishes to have one himself. Then, when the sparrow dies, he either is truly sad or is once again mocking the sparrow. The other teacher says that those same poems may be interpreted to be implying that Catullus has, in fact, killed the sparrow himself. I was just wondering if anyone else here has an opinion on the matter.
RexTibi
Posted at Thu Dec 16, 2004 01:42:23  Quote
I have also had questions about the interpretation of carmen 2 and 3. I believe that Catullus is simply mocking his girlfriend's affection for her pet, and her sadness when it dies. Does anyone have any different ideas about the interpretation of this poem?
Guest
Posted at Tue Mar 15, 2005 06:25:46  Quote
There is another interpretation of this poem. Suffice it to say that there is a more erotic bend.
Guest
Posted at Wed Mar 16, 2005 00:58:45  Quote
There is absolutely no way of knowing whether Catullus killed the little sparrow. Its all the stuff of lounge room chit chat - no one knows.
But what we do know is that Catullus is indeed being sarcastic. He invokes the image of Homeric Epic poetry, but with a caustic bent. When Catullus say that the Sparrow now flies through the gloomy halls of the underworld he is like Odyseus, but he is mocking.
It is almost like Bugs Bunny doing opera, its a mockery.
AEH
Posted at Wed Mar 15, 2006 14:18:34  Quote
The erotic interpretation of Catullus 2 and 3 has been ruled out in the early Eighties (even if some American and German scholars incredibly still believe it). I cannot see but a slight, innocent mockery in the complaint over the dead sparrow: Catullus here imitates his Hellenistic model: it quite is a piece of art without further not-literary implications.
I was amused at reading that some teachers dare suggest Cat. "killed" the sparrow!!! Whence may they have taken this foolish hypothesis?
Guest
Posted at Thu Mar 16, 2006 23:00:59  Quote
I am interested in the poem Carmen 3, I would like to use the poem for a Humanities paper I am doing, I have to relate the work to my own life, so if you know anything about the poem please let me know, I don't want to write about it if I don't interpret it correctly.
 


  ďż˝ copyright 1995-2010 by Rudy Negenborn
   Nedstat