Catullus and Sir Richard Francis Burton

The great Victorian eccentric, explorer and man of letters Sir Richard Francis Burton translated Catullus, and a self-published version appeared after his death in 1894. I have a copy of another privately printed set of 750 books dated New York 1928. The work is a delight, and includes illustrations, Latin text, and a prose translation alongside Burton's verse translation by his collaborator on Latin projects Leonard C. Smithers.

Burton's translation is my favourite for a number of reasons:

• he insists on sticking to the Latin feel of the work, without recourse to modernisms, and neither adding what isn't there or taking away what is. Indeed his sole object for the work was 'to prove that a translation, metrical and literal, may be true and may be trustworthy';
• he uses metre - and pretty exactly, not allowing too much flexibility, but rather preferring flexible word positioning to 'normal' English;
• he uses titles for the poems, which gives them a better identity than just numbers;
• he uses illustrations (there are eight plates in all) - this breaks up the text and helps define the cultural context.

Here's his translation of Poem 3, On the Death of Lesbia's Sparrow, in iambic pentameters.

Weep every Venus, and all Cupids wail,
And men whose gentler spirits still prevail.
Dead is the Sparrow of my girl, the joy,
Sparrow, my sweeting's most delicious toy,
Whom loved she dearer than her very eyes;
For he was honeyed-pet and anywise
Knew her, as even she her mother knew;
Ne'er from her bosom's harbourage he flew
But 'round her hopping here, there, everywhere,
Piped he to none but her his lady fair.
Now must he wander o'er the darkling way
Thither, whence life-return the Fates denay.
But ah! beshrew you, evil Shadows low'ring
In Orcus ever loveliest things devouring:
Who bore so pretty a Sparrow fro' her ta'en.
(Oh hapless birdie and Oh deed of bane!)
Now by your wanton work my girl appears
With turgid eyelids tinted rose by tears.

A very Victorian rendering!

You can find his translation in the online Perseus Digital Library.