C.D. Warner, et al., comp.
The Library of the World’s Best Literature. An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Elegy on Lesbias Sparrow
By Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84c. 54 B.C.)
L
Mourn, fair youths, where’er ye be!
Dead my Lesbia’s sparrow is,
Sparrow that was all her bliss,
Than her very eyes more dear;
For he made her dainty cheer;
Knew her well, as any maid
Knows her mother; never strayed
From her bosom, but would go
Hopping round her to and fro,
And to her, and her alone,
Chirruped with such pretty tone.
Now he treads that gloomy track
Whence none ever may come back.
Out upon you, and your power,
Which all fairest things devour,
Orcus’s gloomy shades, that e’er
Ye took my bird that was so fair!
Ah, the pity of it! Thou
Poor bird, thy doing ’tis, that now
My loved one’s eyes are swollen and red,
With weeping for her darling dead.