The Poems of Catullus

A Dual-Language Edition with Parallel Text

By: Gaius Valerius Catullus, Stephanie McCarter - introduction, Stephanie McCarter - translator

I hate and love. How do I do this, you might ask. I don't know but I feel it and am tortured.

A Penguin Classic

Award-winning translator Stephanie McCarter presents a dual-language translation of the surviving poems of Catullus (84-54 BCE), the Roman poet and punk, the lover and the hater, the hedonist and the wretch, famous for contradictions on friendship, love, and sex, and infamous for obscene diatribes against enemies. Catullus wrote only a single book of poetry, but in it lies some of the most raw and forceful depictions human emotion to be produced in the ancient world. Catullus’s lyricism is as tender as it is violent, equally capable of capturing fleeting romance, heartbroken despondence, and exuberant rage. Tailored to a broad audience, McCarter’s translation conveys the nuances of sexuality and gender in ancient Rome and meticulously mirrors Catullus’s poetic variety. This edition, which includes facing Latin text as well as a general introduction, suggestions for further reading, and endnotes, showcases the complexities of a poet who shaped the Western poetic tradition.

Penguin Classics is the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world, representing a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.