Catullus: Poem 34 "Prayer to Diana" (From Latin)

Poem 34: Prayer to Diana
By Gaius Valerius Catullus
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
Click to hear me recite the original Latin

We are unmarried youths and maidens
In Diana's strength secure
And as befits us, youths and maidens
Let us now sing of Her.
We sing to You, Latona's daughter,
Great child of greatest Jove
Whose mother gave You birth within
A Delian olive grove,
To be the mistress of the mountains
and greening woods, to rule
wild hidden hinterlands, the resonant
river, the calm deep pool.
Women in labor crying out
call You light-bringer Juno.
But You are Crossroad Trivia too
And the light-borrowing Luna.
In monthly measures you divide
The year's course, usher back
The plenteous harvest of the farmer
Into his rural shack.
By any name you choose be pleased
With this our worship. Hold
The Roman Race safe in your strength
As once you did of old.

The Original:

Dianae sumus in fide
puellae et pueri integri:
Dianam pueri integri
puellaeque canamus.
o Latonia, maximi
magna progenies Iovis,
quam mater prope Deliam
deposivit olivam,
montium domina ut fores
silvarumque virentium
saltuumque reconditorum
amniumque sonantum:
tu Lucina dolentibus
Iuno dicta puerperis,
tu potens Trivia et notho es
dicta lumine Luna.
tu cursu, dea, menstruo
metiens iter annuum,
rustica agricolae bonis
tecta frugibus exples.
sis quocumque tibi placet
sancta nomine, Romulique,
antique ut solita es, bona
sospites ope gentem.

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