otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est:
otium exsultas nimiumque gestis:
otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.
Charles Stuttaford offers this translation:
“Ease, Catullus, is your bane; you indulge too much in ease,
and it has too many attractions to you. Ease, ere now, has proved the ruin of
kings and prosperous cities.”
Frank O. Copley proposes this quite different version:
“Catullus, it is bad for you to
have nothing to do
when you’ve nothing to do you get
all stirred up and excited
having nothing to do, in days gone
by, has ruined
kings
and rich cities”
The translation by A. S. Kline’s presents a clearly much better rendition of the original text:
“Your
idleness is loathsome Catullus:
you
delight in idleness, and too much posturing:
idleness
ruined the kings and cities
of former
times."
