Laudator Temporis Acti

Catullus 63.50-61 (tr. David Mulroy):

Land of our fathers, creator of life, land of my birth,        50
land that I fled (fatal mistake!) like a fugitive slave
deserting his lords, steering my path to the forests of Ida
to live in the region of snow and the cold stables of beasts,
visiting animals’ hidden retreats, brimming with madness,
where do I reckon you lie, fatherland, how can I see you?        55
My eye by itself struggles to fasten its gaze on your shores
during my soul’s fleeting remissions from furious madness.
Am I to be torn from my home, kept in these faraway places?
Lost to my friends, parents, and country, and all that I own.
Gone from the forum and the wrestling ground, tracks and gymnasia?        60
What absolute misery! Spirit, repent over and over!

patria o mei creatrix, patria o mea genetrix,        50
ego quam miser relinquens, dominos ut erifugae
famuli solent, ad Idae tetuli nemora pedem,
ut apud nivem et ferarum gelida stabula forem
et earum operta adirem furibunda latibula,
ubinam aut quibus locis te positam, patria, reor?        55
cupit ipsa pupula ad te sibi derigere aciem,
rabie fera carens dum breve tempus animus est.
egone a mea remota haec ferar in nemora domo?
patria, bonis, amicis, genitoribus abero?
abero foro, palaestra, stadio et gyminasiis?        60
miser a miser, querendum est etiam atque etiam, anime.

54 operta vel opaca L. Mueller, amica Muretus: omnia codd.

C.J. Fordyce ad loc.: