Catulli Carmina I

Qui dono lepidum novum libellum
arido modo pumice expolitum?

To whom am I presenting this neat new book
just buffed with dry pumice?

Corneli, tibi: namque tu solebas
meas esse aliquid putare nugas;

Cornelius, to you: for you were accustomed
to consider my nonsense to be something.

iam tum cum ausus es unus Italorum

Even then when you have dared, alone of the Italians

omne aevum tribus explicare cartis
doctis, Iuppiter, et laboriosis.

to unfold the whole of time in three volumes
scholarly, and, by Jupiter, meticulous.

quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli
qualecumque; quod o patrona virgo,
plus uno maneat perenne saeclo.

Therefore have for yourself this whatever of a book
such as it is; may it, o my sponsoress,
endure through the years for more than one lifetime.