Catullus: Selected Poems

Mitchell (Beowulf) beautifully translates Catullus (84–54 BCE), retaining the original poems’ hendecasyllabic form while lending a punchy, plucky voice to the ancient poet. Mitchell explains his criteria for selecting which poems to translate: “I simply chose the poems that gave me the most pleasure—the ones I thought were the best.” Catullus writes of love affairs and the death of a brother, and issues juicy invectives against other poets that are on par with the best diss tracks. In one, he addresses a poet’s collection directly: “Hey, Volusius’ Annals (yes,/ I’m talking to your hundreds of pages smeared with bullshit).” In another, he asks, “What mean thing have I said or done to you, to/ make you plague me with all these putrid poets?” Catullus is best known for his poems about a woman he addresses as Lesbia, and their relationship reveals kaleidoscopic emotions: “Hate and love. Perhaps you are wondering how this can be. I don’t know, but I feel it and am in torment.” Elsewhere, he likens his heartbreak to illness, beseeching the gods to “take this disease and rip it out, this affliction.” Catullus’s verses still ring true, reminding readers that the habits of the heart haven’t changed in millennia. (Apr.)