The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus, by Catullus : lxxxvii.

lxxxvii.

Nulla potest mulier tantum se dicere amatam

Vere, quantum a me Lesbia amata mea’s.

Nulla fides ullo fuit umquam foedere tanta,

Quanta in amore tuo ex parte reperta meast.

Nunc est mens diducta tua, mea Lesbia, culpa, LXXV

Atque ita se officio perdidit ipsa suo,

Vt iam nec bene velle queat tibi, si optima fias,

Nec desistere amare, omnia si facias.

lxxxvii.

To Lesbia.

Never a woman could call herself so fondly belovèd

Truly as Lesbia mine has been beloved of myself.

Never were Truth and Faith so firm in any one compact

As on the part of me kept I my love to thyself.

Now is my mind to a pass, my Lesbia, brought by thy treason, LXXV

So in devotion to thee lost is the duty self due,

Nor can I will thee well if best of women thou prove thee,

Nor can I cease to love, do thou what doings thou wilt.

No woman can say with truth that she has been loved as much as thou, Lesbia, hast been loved by me: no love-troth was ever so greatly observed as in love of thee on my part has been found.

Now is my mind so led apart, my Lesbia, by thy fault, and has so lost itself by its very worship, that now it can not wish well to thee, wert thou to become most perfect, nor cease to love thee, do what thou wilt!