Country place of mine, whether Sabine or Tiburtine
(for they claim you to be Tiburtine, those who do not feel like
offending Catullus: yet those who like to offend him,
wager anything that you are Sabine),
but whether Sabine or more truly Tiburtine,
I was glad to be at your suburban hearth.
I coughed an awful cough from my chest
which my belly had given me, not undeservingly,
while I was after sumptuous dinners.
For as I wanted to be Sestius's dinner companion
I read a speech full of poison and plague
against the candidate Antius,
At this point a chilling cold and frequent cough shook me
continually until I fled into your bosom
and I restored myself by rest and nettle.
Wherefore, having been restored, I offer you most grateful thanks
because my sin you did not punish.
And now I am quite happy, if I touch the horrible works
of Sestius, that the cold bring a chill and a cough
not to me but to Sestius himself;
he only invites me when I have read a bad book.