This elegy is one of my favourites. It is a short poem by Catullus, one of the neoterics, whose style I find very attractive. Catullus was in love with a woman he called Lesbia, whom Apuleius identifies as Clodia, the sister of Clodius Pulcher, and he describes her as confident, very beautiful and cultured. However, it turned out that she had a series of affairs, and the style of his love poetry changed as a result. It was quite tragic, but see what you think. The translation is my own:
Odi et amo. Quare id faciam, fortasse requiris? Nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior. I loathe and I love. Perhaps you enquire, why I do this. I know not, but I feel it being done, and I am tormented.
Oh. It's twenty past a Robin !!!
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