On idleness and translation

The poem LI b by Gaius Valerius Catullus (B.C. 87-54) reads thus in its original Latin version:

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."