The Poems and Fragments of Catullus Translated in the Metres of the Original — Free Audiobook | OpenFreeBooks
The Poems and Fragments of Catullus Translated in the Metres of the Original
by Gaius Valerius Catullus
About this book
The Poems and Fragments of Catullus Translated in the Metres of the Original by Gaius Valerius Catullus delivers the razor-sharp intimacy of Roman lyric into English with striking metrical fidelity. This edition presents Catullus’s passionate short poems—love songs, bitter invectives, playful epigrams and elegiac laments—rendered by Victorian classicist Robinson Ellis into English while preserving the rhythms and metres of the Latin originals.
Rooted in the culture of the late Roman Republic, these lyrics capture private feeling and public rivalry: desire and jealousy, friendship and mockery, political allusion and everyday wit. Ellis’s sensitive approach aims to reproduce not only sense and tone but the cadences of hendecasyllables, sapphics and elegiac verses, offering listeners an experience closer to the original performances. As both a work of Poetry and a study in Languages, the collection illuminates meter, Latin diction and the enduring emotional directness that made Catullus a touchstone for later poets.
Ideal for students of Latin, lovers of classical and lyric poetry, and anyone intrigued by historical voice and metrical craft, this audiobook is a vivid, portable way to hear Catullus’s voice across two millennia.
