VINNOVO THE POEMS OF VALERIUS CATULLUS, TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH VERSE. WITH LIFE OF THE POET, EXCURSÛS, AND ILLUSTRATIVE NOTES. BY JAMES CRANSTOUN, B.A. spirat adhuc amor." EDINBURGH: WILLIAM P. NIM MO. PREFACE. THE following version of the Poems of Catullusexecuted during the translator's leisure hours-is submitted to the public, not with the view of superseding existing translations, but of more widely diffusing an acquaintance with a poet who is now beginning to meet with some degree of the attention he deserves. The plan of reproducing all the poems may appear objectionable to some; but to the translator it seemed preferable to that of mutilating the poet, and presenting him in a totally different aspect from that in which he has revealed himself in his writings. Moreover, a translator, if he is anxious to give anything like an exact reflex of his author-which ought surely to be his highest aim-can never be justified in suppressing the one |