Skip to main content

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.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Maula-Maula laakh pukaare - Kalaam by Hazrat Zaheen Shah Taji (R.A.)

????-???? ??? ??????,???? ??? ? ?? ????? ?? ?? ??? ??? ???,???? ??? ? ?? ?? ???? ?? ??? ?? ???? ????,?? ?????? ?? ????-???? ????-????,?????? ?? ?? ??? ????-???? ????-????,?? ?? ??? ? ?? ?? ??????? ?? ?? ?? ??,?? ???? ?? ??? ???? ?? ????? ???? ???? ?? ??????? ???? ???? ??? ? ???? ???? ???? ?? ??? ?? ?? ????? ~ Hazrat Zhaeen Shah Taji (R.A.) Maula-Maula laakh pukaare,Maula haath na aaye Lafzon se hum khel rahe hain,maa'na haath na aaye Jo pani ke naam ko pani jaane,naadaani hai Pani-pani rat'te rat'te,pyaasa hi mr jaaye Shola-shola rat'te-rat'te,lab pe aanch na aaye Ik chingaari lab par rakh lo,lab fauran jal jaaye Ism pe Qaane hone waala aur musamma khone waala Kaam na karne waala moorakh bas naam se ji bahlaye English Translation: Calling out Maula Maula! Maula still escapes us. We only play with words,meaning still escapes us. Who understands the word Water as Water,is a fool, He will keep chanting Water Water and will die of thirst. By ch...
Post a Comment
Read more

Rumi's "Popular Versions" in Their Original Farsi Scripts

I've been receiving numerous emails requesting the original Farsi or Persian verses of Rumi's very famous and often quoted English "Versions" which are "translated" by the popular Rumi "version makers", particularly the incomparable Coleman Barks who has single-handedly made Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi Rumi a household name here in our beloved America. In some instances, it's virtually impossible to find Rumi's original Farsi verses, mainly due to non-Persian speaking 'version makers' not providing a reference to the original Rumi verses in their famous  new-agey  translation works. Coleman Barks, the foremost Rumi translator and "version maker", not only openly admits, but also calls his Rumi translations as "versions," or "re-renderings" because he doesn't read Farsi:  �Of course, as I work on these poems, I don�t have the Persian to consult. I literally have nothing to be faithful to, except wha...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lucan: Opening to his Epic on the Civil War (From Latin)

I have recently finished reading (for the first time in its entirety) Lucan's unfinished epic Bellum Civile " The Civil War." I found it extraordinary. When I had finished, I wanted to translate the entire thing. Though I quickly realized that I hadn't the time or the resources to do so without the task taking several years. So I have selected a few excerpts from the Bellum Civile  that I think read well on their own, and have added these to my translation queue. Starting with this part here from the poem's opening. You can see a list of the planned excerpts on my table of contents (list of translated poems.) Opening to his Epic on the Civil War (1.1-82)  By Lucan Translated by A.Z. Foreman I sing of war far worse than civil war waged in the nasty fields of Thessaly, of crime gone legal, of a powerful state that disemboweled itself with victory's sword, of family front lines 1 ; how when the pact of tyranny imploded, all the forces of a concussed w...
Post a Comment
Read more