To whom do I dedicate this charming slim volume
To whom do I dedicate this charming slim volume,
just now polished with dry pumice stone?
To you Cornelius, for you were accustomed to think
that my scribblings were something.
When already at the same time, you, only Italian,
dared to explain the whole history in three scrolls,
learned, by Jupiter, and weighty!
Hence have it for yourself whatever this little book is,
and whatever you like, so that, oh patron maiden,
may it last for more than one longlasting age.
This is the first poem of Catullus' carmina, in which he dedicates his "nugae" ("scribblings") to Cornelius Nepos, a Roman historian who wrote the biographies of famous men of the antiquity. That is also Catullus' poetical manifesto: his poetry deals with unimportant things (compared to Nepos' subjects) but has to be well refined and every word "expolished".
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