Poems
Robert Fitzgerald
CARMEN
XI
Furi et Aureli, comites Catulli
...
Furius and Aurelius, Catullus's comrades,
Whether he penetrate the ultimate Indies,
Where the rolling surf on the shores of Morning
Beats and again beats,
Or in the land of Bedouin, the soft Arabs,
Or Parthians, the ungentlemanly archers,
Or where the Nile with seven similar streamlets
Colors the clear sea;
Or if he cross the loftier Alpine passes
And view the monuments of almighty Caesar–
The Rhine, and France, and even those remotest
Shuddersome British-
Friends, prepared for all of these, whatever
Province the celestial ones may wish me,
Take a little bulletin to my girl friend,
Brief but not dulcet:
Let her live and thrive with her fornicators,
Of whom she hugs three hundred in an evening,
With no true love for any, leaving them broken·
Winded the same way.
She need not look, as once she did, for my love.
By her own fault it died, like a tumbling flower
At the field's edge, after the passing harrow
Clipped it and left it.
Ronald Hambleton
Her body is in the trees
Asking budding questions
With a mouth scarcely green;
The sap visibly colors
289
