XXIX.

Can any brook to see it, any tamely bear--

If any, gamester, epicure, a wanton, he--

Mamurra's own whatever all the curly Gauls

Did else inherit, or the lonely Briton isle?

Can you look on, look idly, filthy Romulus? 5

Shall he, in o'er-assumption, o'er-repletion he,

Sedately saunter every dainty couch along,

A bright Adonis, as the snowy dove serene?

Can you look on, look idly, filthy Romulus?

Look idly, gamester, epicure, a wanton, you. 10

Unique commander, and was only this the plea

Detain'd you in that islet angle of the west,

To gorge the shrunk seducer irreclaimable

With haply twice a million, add a million yet?

What else was e'er unhealthy prodigality? 15

The waste? to lust a little? on the belly less?

Begin; a glutted hoard paternal; ebb the first.

To this, the booty Pontic; add the spoil from out

Iberia, known to Tagus' amber ory stream.

Not only Gaul, nor only quail the Briton isles. 20

What help a rogue to fondle? is not all his act

To swallow monies, empty purses heap on heap?

But you--to please him only, shame to Rome, to me!

Could you the son, the father, idly ruin all?

The Poems and Fragments of Catullus Translated in the Metres of the Original · 第 36 / 184 题