Catullus: The Complete Poems

• A new translation of all the extant poems of Catullus that captures the many voices of the poet and his direct, evocative, accessible style. Whether the tone is lyrical, satirical, wistful, sarcastic, loving, bitter or obscene, the translation aims at reproducing that tone for the English reader with accuracy and affinity. The book tries to capture the ‘modernity’ of Catullus, in that he focuses on personal experience, moves effortlessly from tender declarations of love to vile insults (often aimed at the same person), and has as his topics friendship, love, anger, betrayal, reflections on mortality, contempt for authority, and hatred for injustice, as experienced in everyday life – and as experienced by most of us perhaps even more in the twenty-first century. Catullus is a poet for our times, and this translation tries to give the reader the same feelings of joy, sadness, amusement, shock, and awe that Catullus’ first readers surely experienced.

Catullus; Latin poetry; love; satire; Classics

• John Farquhar was educated at Liverpool University and St. John’s College, Oxford, specialising in French and Latin. He taught English, French, German and Italian literature at Rutgers University, New Jersey; Temple University, Philadelphia; Bexley College, Kent, and Collingham Tutorial College, Oxford.