ON THE BURIAL OF HIS BROTHER.

Faring thro’ many a folk and plowing many a sea-plain

These sad funeral-rites (Brother!) to deal thee I come,

So wi’ the latest boons to the dead bestowed I may gift thee,

And I may vainly address ashes that answer have none,

Sithence of thee, very thee, to deprive me Fortune behested,

Woe for thee, Brother forlore!Cruelly severed fro’ me.

Yet in the meanwhile now what olden usage of forbears

Brings as the boons that befit mournfullest funeral rites,

Thinebe these gifts which flow with tear-flood shed by thy brother,

And,for ever and aye (Brother!) all hail and farewell.

Carmina. C. Valerius Catullus. Leonard C. Smithers (Translator), Sir Richard Francis Burton (Translator). London. 1894.

Sponsored by Perseus Project, Tufts University.

Funding provided by The National Endowment for the Humanities.

Current edition Perseus

Carmina (English) (Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Burton, Sir Richard Francis, translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894.)

Translations (1)

Carmina Perseus (Catullus, Gaius Valerius. The Carmina of Caius Valerius Catullus. Smithers, Leonard Charles, prose translator. London, Printed for the Translators, 1894. (Modernized by Perseus.)) — 101 focus

Through many nations and through many seas borne, I come, brother, for these sad funeral rites, that I may give the last gifts to the dead, and may vainly speak to your silent ashes,

since fortune has taken yourself away from me. Ah, poor brother, undeservedly snatched from me. But now receive these gifts, which have been handed down in the ancient manner of ancestors, the sad gifts to the grave, drenched with a brother’s tears,

and for ever, brother, hail and farewell.

C. Valerius Catullus Carmina 101

Leonard C. Smithers (Translator), Sir Richard Francis Burton (Translator)

Search the Perseus Catalog for:

ON THE BURIAL OF HIS BROTHER.

Current edition Perseus

Stable identifiers