Catullus poem 13

Translation and style notes

Translate: ‘cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,’

You will dine well at my house, my Fabullus, within a few days, if the gods favour you,

Translate: ‘si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam cenam, non sine candida puella et vino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.’

…if you bring a good and large meal with you, not without a pretty girl and wine and wit and every kind of laughter.

Translate: ‘haec si, inquam, attuleris, venuste noster, cenabis bene; nam tui Catulli plenus sacculus est aranearum.’

If you bring these things, I declare, my charming friend, you will dine well; for the purse of your Catullus is full of cobwebs.

Translate: ‘sed contra accipies meros amores, seu quid suavius elegantiusve est:’

But in return, you will receive unfiltered love, or whatever is more pleasant or more elegant:

Translate: ‘nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque,’

for I shall give you perfume, which the gods and goddesses of love gave to my girlfriend,

Translate: ‘quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis, totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.’

…which, when you smell [it], you will ask the gods, Fabullus, to make you all nose.