Tuesday, June 21, 2005
Poem of the Month (slight return)
Carmen LXX
Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat.
dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti,
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.
Gaius Valerius Catullus (84- 54 BC)
Poem 70
No one, my woman says to me, is there
with whom she'd rather be, than me,
not even if Jupiter himself should ask.
So she says, but what a woman says to her hot lover
should be written on the wind and running water.
This one does not need a lot of explanation. Clearly all was not well in the Catullus and Clodia/Lesbia relationship when this was written. I wonder it this one strikes a cord with guys who feel that they were deceived by women who merely cooled on them. Some people seem to think this is a misogynistic poem. I disagree. One of the great things about women is that they will go with their feelings (better than men seem to do) even if it causes them to seem flighty and inconstant. The fact is, as humans, our feelings do change over time and while men seem to resist or, at least, to mask it, women seem to notice better and to embrace the changes. I don't think noticing that difference between men and women is misogyny. Clearly Catullus is pissed off, though.
Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat.
dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti,
in vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.
Gaius Valerius Catullus (84- 54 BC)
Poem 70
No one, my woman says to me, is there
with whom she'd rather be, than me,
not even if Jupiter himself should ask.
So she says, but what a woman says to her hot lover
should be written on the wind and running water.
This one does not need a lot of explanation. Clearly all was not well in the Catullus and Clodia/Lesbia relationship when this was written. I wonder it this one strikes a cord with guys who feel that they were deceived by women who merely cooled on them. Some people seem to think this is a misogynistic poem. I disagree. One of the great things about women is that they will go with their feelings (better than men seem to do) even if it causes them to seem flighty and inconstant. The fact is, as humans, our feelings do change over time and while men seem to resist or, at least, to mask it, women seem to notice better and to embrace the changes. I don't think noticing that difference between men and women is misogyny. Clearly Catullus is pissed off, though.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 6:45 AM 
