Skip to content

Due to staff leave and the Easter Bank Holiday weekend there may be some delay to orders and email responses until Tues 2nd April. Thank you for your patience!

The Books of Catullus, trans. by Simon Smith

Regular price £12.99

Unit price per 

only -2 left in stock

The Books of Catullus is the first full English translation of Catullus to take him at his word. It divides the Roman poet’s complete works into the three ‘books’ in which many scholars believe the poems were originally received in the Late Republic (c. 60 bc). The length of each book, or grouping, correlates to the usual length of a single roll of papyrus from that period. These ‘books’ gather poems in different metres and concentrate on specific themes. Poems 1–60 are polymetra, from hendecasyllabics to the Sapphics of Poems 11 and 51, on love and friendship. Poems 61–64 concentrate on the theme of marriage. Poems 65–116 are short epigrams written in elegiac couplets.

This translation concentrates on the range and variety of tone Catullus achieves, qualities sacrificed in most versions to a homogenising, singular translator’s voice. Through syllable count, ventriloquism and mapping the registers of the originals – poem 16 ghosts the voice of Frank O’Hara, for instance – these versions shadow the originals, true to scholarship and at the same time true to Catullus’s poetry line by line. ‘It would be worth ten years of a man’s life to translate Catullus,’ said Ezra Pound. Simon Smith has found it so.

MEMBERS ENJOY 25% OFF ALL POETRY BOOKS

JOIN NOW

Join the Poetry Book Society for 25% off all books

Close (esc)

Popup

Use this popup to embed a mailing list sign up form. Alternatively use it as a simple call to action with a link to a product or a page.

Age verification

By clicking enter you are verifying that you are old enough to consume alcohol.

Search

Your cart is currently empty.
Shop now