{{Short description|Latin poem by Catullus}} thumb|350px|right|A poem about an aging ship. '''Catullus 4''' is a poem by the ancient Roman writer Gaius Valerius Catullus ({{Circa|84}}–{{Circa|54}} BCE) that concerns the retirement of a well-traveled ship (referred to as a "''phaselus''", also sometimes cited as "''phasellus''", a variant spelling). Catullus draws a strong analogy with human aging, rendering the boat as a person that flies and speaks, with palms (the oars) and purpose.
The poem is complex, with numerous geographic references and elaborate litotic double negatives in a list-like manner. It borrows heavily from Ancient Greek vocabulary, and also uses Greek grammar in several sections. The meter of the poem is unusual — iambic trimeter, which was perhaps chosen to convey a sense of speed over the waves. thumb|Catullus 4 read in Latin
Scholars remain uncertain whether the story of the construction and voyages of this ''phasellus'' (ship, yacht, or pinnace), as described or implied in the poem, can be taken literally. Professor A. D. Hope in his posthumous book of translations from Catullus<ref>''The shorter poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus : a new translation''; translated by A.D. Hope, Blackheath, N.S.W., Brandl & Schlesinger, 2007</ref> is one translator who takes it so. His introduction calls the phasellus “his yacht, in which he [Catullus] must have made the return voyage [from Bithynia]” and the translation ends ''Until she made landfall in this limpid lake.'' / ''But that was aforetime and she is laid up now . . .'' However Hope also left, in his final collection of poetry ''Aubade'', a much freer translation, adaptation, or erotic parody,<ref>The drafting of this version is discussed in Hope’s Notebooks, since transcribed and edited by Ann McCulloch as ''Dance of the Nomad: a study of the selected notebooks of A.D. Hope'', Canberra, ANU Press, 2005 p. 323.</ref> in which the phasellus seems to be, in effect, a phallus. This version says that the phasellus ''claims that in his hey-day with mainsail and spanker'' / ''He outsailed all vessels''; and the ending becomes: ''At his last landfall now, beyond all resurgence,'' / ''View him careened upon a final lee-shore;'' / ''. . . Sing for the captain who will put to sea no more!''
Among a number of other interpretations, Catullus 4 has also been interpreted as a parody of epic poetry, or the boat as a metaphor for the Ship of State.
==Text==
{{Verse translation| phaselus ille, quem videtis, hospites ait fuisse navium celerrimus neque ullius natantis impetum trabis nequisse praeterire, sive palmulis opus foret volare sive linteo. et hoc negat minacis Hadriatici negare litus insulasve Cycladas Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thraciam Propontida trucemve Ponticum sinum,{{efn|''Propontis'' ("in front of Pontus") was the ancient name for the Sea of Marmora, and ''Ponticum sinum'' ("Pontic sea") was the name for the Black Sea.}} ubi iste post phaselus antea fuit comata silva; nam Cytorio{{efn|Mt. Cytorus was a mountain on the southern coast of the Black Sea, between the port cities of Amastris and Cytorus. Cytorus was famous as a source of boxwood.}} in iugo loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma. Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima ait phaselus: ultima ex origine tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine tuo imbuisse palmulas in aequore et inde tot per impotentia freta erum tulisse, laeva sive dextera vocaret aura, sive utrumque Iuppiter simul secundus incidisset in pedem; neque ulla vota litoralibus deis sibi esse facta, cum veniret a mari novissimo hunc ad usque limpidum lacum. sed haec prius fuere: nunc recondita senet quiete seque dedicat tibi gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris{{efn|The ''gemelle Castoris'' ("twin of Castor") refers to Pollux, the other twin in the Castor and Pollux pair, who were also known as the Gemini ("twins"). The two twins were often referred to by only a single name, most commonly Castor, as though they were one, hence the ''tibi'' in line 26.}}<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0003%3Apoem%3D4 Catullus 4], via the Perseus Project</ref> | That light ship, which you see, guests, says that she was the most swift of vessels and the speed any floating timber she was not unable to surpass, whether oars she needed or a sail in order to fly. And she denies that of the threatening Adriatic, this fact, the shore denies, or the islands, Cyclades and noble Rhodus and the rugged Thracian Propontis, or the Pontic gulf where she was a light ship after, before a leafy forest; for when on the ridge of mount Cytorus she speaks, often the foliage begets a hissing sound. Pontic Amastris and box-tree-bearing Cytorus, that to you these things were and are most known says the light ship: that out of your earliest birth, she says, she stood at your peak, wetted her palms [or oars] in your flat sea, and then across so many impotent straits bore her master, whether the left or right breeze summoned [you], or whether favourable Jupiter fell on each foot at once; [And she says] that neither were any prayers to the shore gods made by her, when she came by sea very recently to this continuously clear lake. But these things were previously: now that secluded one is old, and in repose she dedicates herself to you, O twin Castor and twin of Castor. |head1=Latin text|head2=English translation}}
==Notes== {{notelist}}
==Bibliography== {{Wikisourcelang|la|Catullus 4|Catullus 4}} {{Wikisourcelang|en|Translation:Catullus 4|Catullus 4}}
* {{cite journal | last = Griffith | first = JG | year = 1983 | title = Catullus Poem 4: A Neglected Interpretation Revived | journal = Phoenix | volume = 37 | pages = 123–128 | doi = 10.2307/1087452 | issue = 2 | publisher = Phoenix, Vol. 37, No. 2 | jstor = 1087452}} * {{cite journal | last = Coleman | first = KM | year = 1981 | title = The Persona of Catullus' Phaselus | journal = Greece and Rome | volume = 28 | pages = 68–72 | doi = 10.1017/S0017383500033507}} * {{cite journal | last = Putnam | first = MCJ | year = 1962 | title = Catullus' Journey (Carm. 4) | journal = Classical Philology | volume = 57 | pages = 10–19 | doi = 10.1086/364642}} * {{cite journal | last = Copley | first = FO | year = 1958 | title = Catullus 4: The World of the Poem | journal = Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association | volume = 89 | pages = 9–13 | doi = 10.2307/283659 | publisher = Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 89 | jstor = 283659}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== *[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0003%3Apoem%3D4 Catullus 4: Text, translations and notes, at the Perseus Collection.] *[http://www.negenborn.net/catullus/text2/e4.htm Catullus 4 in English and several other languages.]
{{Catullus}}
C004 Category:Works about ships Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Castor and Pollux