In on of the less well-known Lesbia poems, Catullus translates into Latin part of a famous poem by the poetess Sappho, using the “Sapphic” metre later adopted by Horace in several of his Odes.
Commentators find it a problem poem. On inconclusive evidence, Granny Fordyce insists that it was “clearly” written in the early days of Catullus’s affair with Lesbia. He goes on to argue that the prosaic ending of the poem can have nothing to do with the more romantic first three quarters, and that its presence is probably a blip in the manuscript (there is also a line missing in the third stanza). But there are other scenarios, including one in which Catullus, at a loose end, embarks on his Sappho translation, is struck by its painful associations with his (lost?) Lesbia, and calls himself to order in a new final stanza. Who can say? The mystery does not spoil the poem. The sharp disagreements about interpretation also illustrate a general point about reading poetry: what you get out of it is often very dependent on what you bring to it.
Hear Catullus’s Latin and follow in English here.
