Catullus: Carmen 2 (two versions)

(By Michael G. Donkin, 2016)

Sparrow, o, Lesbia’s sweet bird
whom she keeps near to stroke

at her bosom, to whom with delight
she offers a restless finger,

prodding for bites, tiny wounds,
if ever my fiery lady needs some

distraction from passion’s sweet pain…
o! that I could play with you myself

little sparrow, you would free
my thoughts from despair.

(By John Nott, 1795)

Dear sparrow! the pride of my maid,

    With whom she in sport often plays;

Whom oft, on her snowy breast laid,

    She toys with a thousand fond ways;

To whom, as you woo that blest seat,

    The tip of her finger she'll move;

Well pleas'd thy sharp bites to create,

    The bites of sweet passion and love:

For thus, when alone, does my fair

    Gay scenes of new pleasure devise;

Thus sooth of her bosom the care,

    Thus cool her fierce heats as they rise:

O, my sparrow, could I but with thee,

    Like her, my solicitudes ease!

There must be a hundred other versions, and no translator can ever get it right.