Gaius Valerius Catullus (84-54BCE) is a Roman poet famed for his poetic interpretations of love and hatred. While he wrote more than 100 poems throughout his life, one of his most influential works remains Catullus 101. In this elegiac poem, Catullus mournfully addresses his dead brother. Despite the poem’s brevity, he utilizes many complex language constructions to amplify his voice and fully convey the themes of grief and frustration.
Original Latin
Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus
advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,
ut te postremo donarem munere mortis
et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem,
quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum,
heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi.
nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum
tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,
accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,
atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.
Translation
Carried through many nations and many seas
I come to these wretched—brother—to the wretched sacrifices in honor of the dead
So that I might bestow to you the last service of death
And speak in vain to silent ashes,
Seeing that fortune stole you yourself from me,
Oh, my poor brother undeservedly taken away from me.
Now however meanwhile these things, which in the ancient custom of the ancestors
Were handed over to sacrificial rites by the mournful service,
Accept these things, much flowing with brotherly tears,
And into the everlasting, brother, hail and farewell.
