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LATIN TEXT

Multas per gentes et multa per aequora vectus

advenio has miseras, frater, ad inferias,

ut te postremo donarem munere mortis

et mutam nequiquam alloquerer cinerem.

quandoquidem fortuna mihi tete abstulit ipsum.

heu miser indigne frater adempte mihi,

nunc tamen interea haec, prisco quae more parentum

tradita sunt tristi munere ad inferias,

accipe fraterno multum manantia fletu,

atque in perpetuum, frater, ave atque vale.



ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Carried through many races and many seas,

I arrive, Brother, at these miserable funeral rites,

So that I might bestow you with the final gift of death

And might speak in vain to the mute ash.

Since Fortuna has stolen you yourself from me,

Alas, wretched brother stolen undeservedly from me,

Meanwhile, however, receive now these flowing much

With brotherly weeping, these which in the ancient custom

Of our parents were handed down as a sad gift for funeral rites,

And forever, Brother, hail and goodbye.



METER/SCANSION

The Meter is Elegiac Couplet .


GENERAL COMMENTS

This is one of several Poem s in which Catullus tries to cope with the loss of his brother.


SOURCES

http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/101.html