Читать книгу The Poems of Catullus - Daisy Dunn, Daisy Dunn - Страница 19

Asinius Marrucinus, you put bad use to

Your left hand when you filch the napkins

Of people who are distracted by laughter and wine.

Do you think it witty?

Then sense eludes you, you are out of touch:

It is as low and charmless a deed as can be.

Don’t you believe me? Then believe Pollio,

Your brother, who would be happy to pay

A talent to end your thievery, for he is a boy

Who brims with grace and wit.

So either be prepared for three hundred rude verses

Or send me back my napkin –

It’s not the value of it that bothers me,

But the fact it is a memento of my friendship.

For my Fabullus and Veranius

Sent me Saetabis napkins as a gift from Spain

So I must love them as I do my

Little Veranius and Fabullus.