All hail to thee, delightful Sirmio!
Of all peninsulas and isles the gem,
Which lake or sea in its fair breast doth show
With either Neptune's arms encircling them.
What joy to find that Thynia, and that plain
Bithynian gone, and see thee safe again!
Charming it is to rest from care and cumber,
When the mind throws its burden, and we come
Wearied with pains of foreign travel home,
And in the bed so longed for sink to slumber.
This pays for all the toil, this quiet after--
Joy, my sweet Sirmio, for thy master's sake,
Make merry, frolic wavelets of my lake--
Laugh on me, all ye stores of home-bred laughter.
GRATIAN.--I don't like "the mind _throws_ its burden:" lays it down is
better--there is more weariness in it. You must alter that expression,
or we see the mind like the "iniquae mentis ascellus," dropping back its
ears, and _throwing_ its not agreeable and easy-sitting rider. Why not--
"When the mind lays its burden down, to come?"
But I see you have both of you translated away from the Latin the _Lydiae
undae_. How comes it so?
AQUILIUS.--The reasons given for the word meaning Lydian seem to be
insufficient; because it is said the Benacus resembles the Lydian rivers
Hermus and Pactolus in having gold; or because the Benacus was in the
district of the Thusci, who came from the Lydians. I adopted a
conjecture once thrown out--and I think it was by the most accomplished
scholar, W. S. Landor, that _Lydiae_ is the adjective of the word
_Ludius--ludiae undae_, or _Lydiae undae_, the same thing, for that ludius
is, as the dictionary tells us, "a Lydis, qui erant optimi saltatores."
If so, _Lydiae_ would mean the sportive, or "dancing waters of the lake."
CURATE.--I took this hint from Aquilius, though I do not remember from
whom the suggestion came. I would venture from the last line--
"Ridete quidquid est domi cachinnorum--"
a remark upon a passage, the celebrated expression in the _Prometheus_
of AEschylus, the [Greek: anerithmon gelasma]. Some call it "countless
dimples." Now is it not possible Catullus may have thought of this, and
as it were translated it by _quidquid est cachinnorum_? The question
then would be, is it meant to speak to the ear or the eye? Is it of
sound or vision? I am inclined to think it is the sound, the
communicative laughter of the many waves. "Dimple" is too little for the
gigantic conception of AEschylus, but the laughter of the multitudinous
ocean-waves is more after his genius. No one could translate _cachinnus_
"a dimple." If, therefore, Catullus had in his mind the Greek passage,
it shows his idea of the [Greek: anerithmon gelasma].
GRATIAN.--I have often admired how that can be _very_ beautiful which is
of uncertain meaning. Is it that either construction conveys distinct
thought--clear idea? I confess, I prefer the sound. What comes next?
CURATE.--Missing one or two, we take up his "Request to his friend
Caecilius to come to him to Verona"--who, it seems, was a native of that
place, and fellow townsman, as well as most dear friend of Catullus.
AQUILIUS.--Both poets--both kind-hearted; in fact, "The two gentlemen of
Verona."
GRATIAN.--Well, that is saying something for Latin poets. Let us have
your version, Curate.