Catullus 51 is a poem by

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

love poet Gaius Valerius Catullus (''c''. 84 – ''c''. 54 BC). It is an adaptation of one of

Sappho Sappho (; ''Sapphṓ'' ; Aeolic Greek ''Psápphō''; ) was an Ancient Greek poet from Eresos or Mytilene on the island of Lesbos. Sappho is known for her lyric poetry, written to be sung while accompanied by music. In ancient times, Sapph ...

's fragmentary lyric poems, Sappho 31. Catullus replaces Sappho's beloved with his own beloved Lesbia. Unlike the majority of Catullus' poems, the

meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

of this poem is the sapphic meter. This meter is more musical, seeing as Sappho mainly sang her poetry.

Catullus Gaius Valerius Catullus (; ), known as Catullus (), was a Latin neoteric poet of the late Roman Republic. His surviving works remain widely read due to their popularity as teaching tools and because of their personal or sexual themes. Life ...

is not the only poet who translated

’s poem to use for himself:

Pierre de Ronsard Pierre de Ronsard (; 11 September 1524 – 27 December 1585) was a French poet known in his generation as a "Prince des poètes, prince of poets". His works include ''Les Amours de Cassandre'' (1552)'','' ''Les Hymnes'' (1555-1556)'', Les Disco ...

and Salvatore Quasimodo are also known to have translated a version of it.

The poem

The following Latin text of Catullus 51 is taken from D.F.S. Thomson; the translation is literal, not literary. *Catullus here builds upon a common interpretation of the lost original verse from Sappho. For a reconstruction of the original Greek first verse, see Sappho 31. *Line 8 is missing from the original manuscript. Oxford Classical Texts (ed. R.A.B. Mynors) provides no substitution. It is possible in fact that it was deliberately left unfinished.Tamás, Á. (2021)
"Catullus’ Sapphic Lacuna. Unspoken Rome: Absence in Latin Literature and Its Reception"
p. 19.

Modern musical setting

This poem was set to music by

Carl Orff Carl Heinrich Maria Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, who composed the cantata ''Carmina Burana (Orff), Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Orff Schulwerk, Schulwerk were influential for ...

as part of his Catulli Carmina (1943).

References

{{Authority control C051 Love poems Adaptations of works by Sappho Literature based on poems Articles containing video clips

The poem

Modern musical setting

See also

References