Catullus 101
Catullus 101 is an elegiac poem written by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus. It is addressed to Catullus' dead brother or, strictly speaking, to the "mute ashes" which are the only remaining evidence of his brother's body.
The tone is grief-stricken and tender, with Catullus trying to give the best gift he had to bestow (a poem) on his brother, who was taken prematurely. The last words, "Hail and Farewell" (in Latin, ave atque vale), are among Catullus' most famous; an alternative modern translation might be "I salute you...and goodbye".
The meter is elegiac couplet, which was usually employed in love poetry, such as Catullus' addresses to Lesbia. However, the elegy couplet was originally used by ancient Greek poets to express grief and lamentation, making it an entirely suitable form to express Catullus' mourning.
Text
| Line | Latin text | English translation |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus | Carried through many nations and over many seas, |
| 2 | advenio has miseras frater ad inferias | I arrive, brother, for these wretched funeral rites |
| 3 | ut te postremo donarem munere mortis | so that I might present you with the last tribute of death |
| 4 | et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem | and speak in vain to silent ash, |
| 5 | quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum | since Fortune has carried away from me you in the flesh.1 |
| 6 | heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi | Alas, poor brother, unfairly taken away from me, |
| 7 | nunc tamen interea haec prisco quae more parentum | now in the meantime, nevertheless, these things which in the ancient custom of ancestors |
| 8 | tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias | are handed over as a sad tribute to the rites |
| 9 | accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu | receive, dripping much with brotherly weeping. |
| 10 | atque in perpetuum frater ave atque vale | And forever, brother, hail and farewell. |
Another elegy
This is one of three poems in which Catullus tries to cope with the loss of his brother. The other poems are Catullus 65 and 68B. The cause of his brother's death is unknown; he apparently died before 57 BC in Bithynia, a northwest region of modern-day Turkey, near the ancient city of Troy.
Modern translations
In addition to its inclusion among the many translations of Catullus's collected poems, Carmen 101 is featured in Nox (2010), a book by Canadian poet and classicist Anne Carson that comes in an accordion format within a box. Nox concerns the death of Carson's own brother, to which the poem of Catullus offers a parallel. Carson provides the Latin text of 101, word-by-word annotations, and "a close and almost awkward translation." Although Nox shares some features with an artist's book in its unconventional format and incorporation of multimedia art, it is mass-produced rather than unique.2
Musical settings
This poem, as translated by Aubrey Beardsley, was set by the composer Ned Rorem under the title "Catullus: On the Burial of his Brother". The Austrian music group Dargaard have also performed this poem in song on their album Rise and Fall, naming it "Ave Atque Vale".
Notes
- ^ The intensive pronoun ipse in this context contrasts the ash to the actual person who existed: Oxford Latin Dictionary, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, reprinted 1985) p. 965, entry on ipse, meaning 5 ("the actual").
- ^ Ben Ratliff, "Lamentation," New York Times Sunday Book Review 3 June 2010 online.
Bibliography
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Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
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English Wikisource has original text related to this article: |
- Cederstrom, E (1981). "Catullus' Last Gift to his Brother (c. 101)". Classical World 75 (2): 117–118. doi:10.2307/4349341.
- Bright, DF (1976). "Non Bona Dicta: Catullus' Poetry of Separation". Quaderni Urbinati di Culture Classica 21: 106–119.
- Howe, NP (1974). "The 'Terce Muse' of Catullus 101". Classical Philology 69 (4): 274–276. doi:10.1086/366109.
- Robinson, CE (1965). "Multas per gentes". Greece and Rome 12: 62–63.
External links
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