Description

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Among the most cherished love poems ever written, Catullus’s brilliant, everlasting verses are collected here in a marvelous mix of English translations. 

Catullus was undoubtedly one of the most intimate, witty, vivid, and tender poets of antiquity. Perhaps his greatest gift was his ability to truthfully reveal the fleeting instants of his bare psyche: moments of erotic passion, of scorn and jealousy, of heartfelt devotion, of consuming love. The cycle of poems to his love, “Lesbia,” have entranced poets and translators across the centuries, enriching many different traditions in English-language poetry.

This anthology of Catullus’s love poems showcases translations from many New Directions authors, including James Laughlin, Bernadette Mayer, Muriel Spark, and Louis and Celia Zukofsky, as well as beloved timeless translations, like those of Ben Jonson and Christopher Marlowe, and inimitable modern versions from the likes of Dorothy Parker and Horace Gregory. Also included are several newly commissioned translations from contemporary poets and writers.

About the Author

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Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Latin poet of the late Roman Republic. His poems—116 in total survive—have been admired by and used as a reference point for countless other writers and artists, including Petrarch, Andrew Marvell, John Milton, William Wordsworth, W. B. Yeats, W. H. Auden, T. S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, Cy Twombly, and Anne Carson.

Tynan Kogane is an editor at New Directions.

Praise For…

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Catullus wrote the loveliest of lovely things—and also the loathesomest.
— Robert Frost

Catullus could rub words so hard / together their friction burned a / heat that warms / us now 2000 years away.
— James Laughlin

The volume’s strength lies in the juxtaposition of dissimilar voices and approaches...highlighting one of antiquity’s most tender, witty, and enduring voices.
— Publishers Weekly