Welcome
Who is Catullus?  Links
Catullus Forum   Search Translations
 

  Available Japanese 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  ::  What Iuventus wipes away (Carmen 99)

<<  •  >>

AuthorMessage
Guest
Posted on Wed Mar 21, 2007 04:37:59  
In line eight, this translation translates "guttis" as tears. I think this is adding very subjective meaning into the poem, which leads to a false understanding. "Guttae" are not tears, but drops of liquid. That Iuventus wipes them from his mouth until "quicquam nostro contractum ex ore maneret" (lit. nothing remains which had been contracted from my mouth), clearly shows that "guttis" should be translated as "saliva", however poetically you want to put it. This meaning is further backed up because the whole scene takes place just after a kiss, not after Iuventus positioned his face under Catullus', so that any tear would fall on his lips, should Catullus cry. Missing this point, I think, misses a good amount of meaning from this poem - that Iuventus spurns Catullus by wiping his mouth dry after a kiss, the ultimate insult. Otherwise there is not reason for Catullus' emotion and conclusion. Please change this translation.
 


  � copyright 1995-2010 by Rudy Negenborn
   Nedstat