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Catullus 85
I hate and I love
Catullus, Carmina: selections. Latin text with a sentence-by-sentence English translation, notes and vocabulary.
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Read in LectitōCat. 85.1Ōdī et amō.
I hate and I love.
Note. Ōdī et amō: two verbs, two opposite feelings. ōdī is perfect in form but present in meaning.
Cat. 85.1Quārē id faciam fortasse requīris
nesciō, sed fierī sentiō et excrucior.
Why I do this, perhaps you ask; I do not know, but I feel it happening, and I am in torment.
Note. Quārē … faciam: indirect question, 'why I do this'. fierī sentiō: 'I feel it happening'. excrucior: 'I am tortured', from cruciō, 'crucify'. Notice that every verb in the poem is something done or suffered, not explained.
Vocabulary
| ōdī, ōdisse, used only in tenses of completed action with the force of tenses of incomplete action | hate |
| et, conj. | and; et ... et, both ... and |
| amō, -āre, -āvī, -ātus | love |
| quārē (adv.) | why; for which reason |
| is, ea, id, dem. pron. | this, that; he, she, it, they |
| faciō, facere, fēcī, factus | make, do; iter facere, see iter |
| fortasse (adv.) | perhaps |
| requīrō, -ere, -quīsīvī, -quīsītus | look for, ask after; need |
| nesciō, -scīre, -scīvī | not know, be ignorant; nesciō quis, I know not who, some one or other (nesciō is thus used with other interrogative words also) |
| sed, conj. | but |
| fīō, fierī, factus sum | be done or made, become, happen |
| sentiō, sentīre, sēnsī, sēnsus | perceive, feel |
| excruciō, -cruciāre, -cruciāvī, cruciātus | torture |