Monday, August 07, 2017
Despair at the Current Political Scene
Catullus 52 (tr. Peter Green):
William Gropper, Politician on the Floor
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What's left, Catullus? Why not die right here and now?Johannes Vahlen, Opuscula Academica, Pars I (Leipzig: B.G Teubner, 1908), p. 216, compares Euripides, fragment 293 (tr. Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp):
That pustule Nonius occupies a curule chair,
Vatinius falsely swears by his own consulship.
What's left, Catullus? Why not die right here and now?
Quid est, Catulle? quid moraris emori?
sella in curuli struma Nonius sedet,
per consulatum peierat Vatinius:
quid est, Catulle? quid moraris emori?
I'd gladly die; for it's not worth people's living when they see bad men unjustly privileged.I.e. unjustly honored, unjustly holding office.
θνῄσκοιμ᾿ ἄν· οὐ γὰρ ἄξιον λεύσσειν φάος
κακοὺς ὁρῶντας ἐκδίκως τιμωμένους.
