Catullus 50 in Latin & English- Hesterno, Licini, die otiosi, Vocabulary notes

About

Carmen 50 is addressed to Licinius Calvus, a close friend and fellow poet, with whom Catullus had spent the day in poetic improvisation. Catullus is clearly impressed with his friend’s intelligence and wit. They had agreed that their “poetry contest” would consist of writing love poems, and this poem indeed reads like one. But I think Catullus is writing it in jest, keeping with their chosen theme, but in an exaggerated manner for humorous effect. He certainly valued the friendship of Calvus, but I don’t think he was seriously suggesting that they be lovers.

Hesterno die: yesterday

Licini: Gaius Licinius Calvus (82–47 B.C.), famous orator, Neoteric poet, and dear friend of Catullus. In poem 14 as a joke he sent Catullus an anthology of the worst new poems he could find. We get a glimpse there of their close friendship: “Ni te plus oculis meis amarem, iucundissime Calve…” (If I didn’t love you more than my own eyes, most delightful Calvus)

Otiosi: at leisure, without official employment, idle. Otiosi describes the subject of “lusimus,” but may also loosely describe “die.” Compare “otium,” used several times in Carmen 51.

Lusimus: we played, amused ourselves, composed poetry.

Tabellis: wooden writing tablets

Punctuation: I am punctuating after “tabellis,” and not after “delicatos,” because “delicatos” refers to the type of poems they are writing, not the poets themselves, in my opinion.

Ut convenerat: as had been agreed

Delicatos: that gives pleasure, voluptuous, amatory, erotic; cf. “deliciae,” beloved.

Versiculos: diminutive of versus; little verses, such as epigrams.

Uterque: each one

Nostrum: of us

Human-made No record of this work says a model made it. What this means.

Archive

Wikimedia Commons, in Wikimedia Commons

Licence or status

CC BY 3.0, as the Wikimedia Commons states it.

Rights statement

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0

Credit

David Amster

Who can watch

The archive gives no rating. Invisible Network shows it to Teens profiles and older, judged from its collection and subjects. How films are placed