Welcome
Who is Catullus?  Links
Catullus Forum   Search Translations
 

  Available Arabic translations:  
 
1 2 2b 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
10 11 12 13 14 14b 15 16 17 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31
32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51
52 53 54 55 56 57 58 58b 59 60
61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70
71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 78b 79
80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89
90 91 92 93 94 95 95b 96 97 98
99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108
109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116
 

  Available languages:  
 
Latin
Afrikaans   Albanian   Arabic
Brazilian Port.   Bulgarian   Castellano
Catalan   Chinese   Croatian
Czech   Danish   Dutch
English   Esperanto   Estonian
Finnish   French   Frisian
German   Greek   Gronings
Hebrew   Hindi   Hungarian
Interlingua   Irish   Italian
Japanese   Korean   Limburgs
Norwegian   Persian   Polish
Portuguese   Rioplatense   Romanian
Russian   Scanned   Serbian
Spanish   Swedish   Telugu
Turkish   Ukrainian   Vercellese
Welsh  
 

  Gaius Valerius Catullus     
About Me
Send a Reaction
Read Reactions
 

 
Catullus Forum

Main  ::  Translations - all  ::  Catullus 16 - functions of obscenity (Carmen 16)

<<  •  >>

AuthorMessage
Guest
Posted on Sat Nov 12, 2005 02:30:23  
Hi - this is a bit of a long shot. I'm a student at the university of Edinburgh studying classics and as part of an essay we have to name the 2 functions of obscenity that Catullus says exist in Poem 16. I'm slightly stumped.... eroticism and? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks
Guest
Posted at Wed Nov 30, 2005 01:36:51  Quote
My guess would be it lies in the "salt and charm" (salem ac leporem) line. You've got the salt part, eroticism. I think he means to say that poems are just more interesting with some racy language.
Guest
Posted at Mon Dec 03, 2007 20:37:19  Quote
Is it really erotic if you call somebody "son of a bitch" or "mother$#$%er"? I don't think so. Arbitror they didn't think of predicabo et irrumabo as being erotic, too.
Guest
Posted at Mon Dec 03, 2007 20:40:13  Quote
Quote:
  "mother$#$%er"

Interesting how censoring impedes discussion of ancient literature.
Guest
Posted at Sat May 24, 2008 12:17:10  Quote
With all due respect. I have to formally disagree with this translation. I respect the translaters wish to keep the spirit of the message, but with that said, he butchered the first line.

Id like to see Catullus 16 retranslated with a little more diligence to detail.
Guest
Posted at Sat Nov 29, 2008 14:49:27  Quote
I would agree that the first and last lines should be retranslated.

As for "salem ac leporem", references to salt in Catullus' poetry generally refer to wit. As such, I think it would be better translated as "wit and charm". This can also be seen as a play on words in poem 13, when salt is incorporated into part of a dinner. It is translated on this site as "wit" in 13 on this site.

As for the obscenities, I see them as nothing more of anger at his critics in this poem. There are other poems, however, where eroticism is definitely implied.
Guest
Posted at Thu Dec 10, 2009 07:57:40  Quote
As someone newly interested in this poet, and unfamiliar with latin, I would hope that the translations here would be as close as possible. I only happen to know this version is uh rather light on the first line due to my knowledge of vulgar latin words and the wiki entry. This makes me question if other translations here are holding back for the sake of delicate readers, while that seems to be contrary to the very essence of this poem in particular and possibly this poet.
I look forward to learning about Catullus from this site. Hopefully I can find some other translations, dirty words and all.
Guest
Posted at Wed Apr 07, 2010 16:20:26  Quote
irrumare, in catullus, is a verb that describes the action of oral sex. However, it shouldn't be confused with fellare. The difference is that irrumare is more violent than fellare, and really means something literally like "to shove it in your mouth" or "to $#$% your face."

As for the first and last lines, pedacare means to $#$% someone anally, and thus it is literally translated: "I will $#$% you anally and will shove my penis in your mouth."
Guest
Posted at Thu Jul 18, 2013 00:47:26  Quote
It's possible do an analysis of the poem?With rhetorical figures, verbal tenses etc?
 


  � copyright 1995-2010 by Rudy Negenborn
   Nedstat