Catullus
Selected Poems
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A vivid and musical rendering of the poetry of Catullus, whose passionate verses have captivated readers for centuries
"Catullus's verses still ring true, reminding readers that the habits of the heart haven't changed in millennia."--Publishers Weekly
In the fourteenth century, a manuscript surfaced in Verona that had been lost for more than a thousand years: the poems of Catullus (c. 84-c. 54 BCE), considered by many to be one of the greatest poets who ever lived. These poems, with their beauty, wit, tenderness, and heartbreak, are still as alive and moving today as they were two thousand years ago.
They are dense, subtle, witty, ardent, fearless, deeply uncensored, nasty (sometimes), petty (sometimes), and always beautiful. It's especially his love poems that have earned readers' admiration over the centuries; the joy and the savage self-inflicted torments that he underwent in his "miserable, disastrous love affair" have been shaped into poems that for honesty and emotional power have few parallels in world literature.
Stephen Mitchell, who is known for bringing ancient texts to vibrant new life, has now translated Catullus's poems for a new generation of readers. These are the first translations of Catullus to reimagine his rhythms in English and thus to let contemporary readers hear the formal beauty of his verse as well as its content, which Robert Lowell calls "much more raw and direct than anything in English."
About this Author
Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84-c. 54 BCE) was one of the most influential lyric poets of ancient Rome. Stephen Mitchell's many books include the best-selling Tao Te Ching, Gilgamesh, The Book of Job, The Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke, The Gospel According to Jesus, The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Beowulf.
Reviews
"Mitchell beautifully translates Catullus, retaining the original poems' hendecasyllabic form while lending a punchy, plucky voice to the ancient poet. . . . Catullus's verses still ring true, reminding readers that the habits of the heart haven't changed in millennia."--Publishers Weekly
"Stephen Mitchell is the Broadway of literary translation. . . . He's glitzy and accessible, and almost uniformly entertaining."--Jim Kates, Arts Fuse
"For Roman audiences of the early first century B.C., the coruscating poems of this miniaturist would indeed have come as a shock, displaying a level of precision and wit that, together with their often-scurrilous subject matter, had only been seen in Greek predecessors. Stephen Mitchell's polished new translations preserve the original luster."--Robert Erickson, New Criterion
"What a dream combination, Stephen Mitchell and Catullus! I've always loved Catullus for his irreverence, his passion, his idiosyncratic voice, which echoes down the centuries. Now Mitchell has made him one of us, a contemporary poet whose verse unveils the human condition in all its madness and grace. Mitchell's rare poetic gift shimmers through these translations."--Jay Parini, author of New and Collected Poems, 1975-2015
"The genius of Stephen Mitchell in these new translations is to make a friend of Catullus--a new incarnation of this bad boy ancient Roman poet, for 'all those who are sensitive to beauty.'"--Daniel Halpern, author of Something Shining and founding publisher, Ecco
"Is there any language that Stephen Mitchell can't bring to life for readers of English? Here, in his first foray into Latin, he does for Catullus what he's already done for Rilke, Neruda, and Yehuda Amichai: capture a great lyric voice with freshness, vigor and energy. This version belongs on the bookshelf of every poetry reader."--James Romm, author of Demetrius: Sacker of Cities and The Sacred Band: Three Hundred Theban Lovers Fighting to Save Greek Freedom and series editor, Ancient Lives
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