Cocktail Talk: Catullus, Poem 27, Translation by Ed Skoog
It is the middle of the holiday cocktail party season. There are, let’s see, daytime work holiday parties, and nighttime work holiday parties, afternoon drinking parties with friends, and evening drinking parties with friends, holiday booze-teas with families, and holiday booze-luncheons with families, and holiday booze evenings with families, and then a host of parties thrown by those that might be friends, but not good friends, but parties you feel you should go to anyway, in the spirit of the season. With all this holiday partying, it’s possible (if not probable) that one or two of the parties may be more chore than cheer. With that, I’d like to present the following poem by Catullus, ancient partier. The poem is about these later parties a bit, and may well be worth reciting loudly when you’re at any holiday party. The translation (because, well, I can’t read ancient Latin) is by modern partier and poet Ed Skoog (did you get Mister Skylight yet? Cause if not, I’m sending a zombie Catullus to haunt you) and is, well, delicious.
Poem 27
Are you tending the bar, kid? Pour me the strong stuff,
the Falernian wine, and one for yourself. We’re going to need it,
the way this party is going. Our host, Postumia, is drunker than
these grapes. No water, please. It kills what wine is.
Save water for the fool who prefers his own sorrow.
This wine is more than wine. It’s the blood of the god
whose mother was destroyed by his father’s splendor,
the god of madness and ecstasy, who shares it with us.
– Poem 27, Catullus, translated by Ed Skoog
PS: Enjoy this drunken poetry and lit’rature stuff? Then you must, I say must, visit the blog Drunk Literature. It’s a literary boozehound’s dream blog.
Tags: Catullus, cocktail poem, Cocktail Talk, drinking poem, Ed Skoog, Wine, wine poem
December 16th, 2009 at 12:22 am
AJ, you are, once again, AWESOME! Thank you so much for the shout-out.
And, you’ve given me a new (old) poet to check out, which is always a most welcome treat. My Greek Classics needs a bit of a brush-up! My favorite part of your post is, “Catallus, ancient partier.” Makes him pretty badass, if you ask me.
December 16th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Becca, you’ll love Catullus (search out a good translation, or just translate them yourself). He was a drunken sex’d up reprobate of the first order. And, speaking of, so is Ed Skoog—you’ll love his book, so get that too. Then your holiday reading will be set. Now, you just need to figure out your holiday drinking . . .
December 17th, 2009 at 4:01 pm
That’s awesome. Almost makes me want to go get me some old Latin poetry and settle in for the ….nah, I’ll hit the Christmas party circuit instead.
December 17th, 2009 at 8:06 pm
Will commit above poem to memory. Will recite at Mormon cousin’s Xmas party. Sure to be a hit!
December 18th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
This post just makes me pine for a holiday party with you and Ed. Wah, wah, wah.
Merry Christmas!
December 21st, 2009 at 4:27 pm
And now your comment makes me pine for that same holiday party–it would be awesome. One day, let’s hope.
And merry christmas right back at you-
May 18th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
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