While everyone else is laughing & drinking
you extend
a surreptitious claw,
Asinius,
towards the table napkins
of the negligent…
an unattractive habit
you misguidedly think funny.
You demur?
I assure you
it is at once squalid & unattractive.
Ask Pollionus, your brother
a boy crackling with wit
who would give a substantial sum
to disembarrass himself of your talents.
Expect, Asinius, a bombardo
of 300 hendecasyllables, or
return my napkin –
of small value itself,
but a memory of friends,
Veranius & Fabullus,
who sent this set of fine table linen
from Spain,
a present cherished by Catullus
at his own Veraniolus –
as Fabullus mine – must always be.
—
From this translation of Catullus‘ poems.
