Catullus: Shibari Carmina

by Isobel Williams

An erotic, humorous, inventive translation of the late Roman poet Catullus through the lens of shibari (Japanese rope bondage).

Genres: Poetry

112 pages, Paperback

Published May 27, 2021

About the author

Isobel P. Williams is a retired medical consultant physician who has gone on to become an author, speaker and lecturer on polar matters. Her work includes biographies of Edward Wilson and Edgar Evans.

Reviews

[Lauren Hatcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Williams’s main aim, to produce a rendering of Catullus’s Carmina free from the translation values of Victorian schoolmasters, is very much accomplished. Her approach of “gesturing at” the Latin rather than hyper-literalism is refreshing and suits the Catullan style very well. In particular, the playful double-entendre of 2, the tender, yet numerical vocabulary of 5, and the simultaneous breadth and compactness of 85 are extremely well-handled.

However, the “gesturing” approach doesn’t always hit the mark, as is the case with her take on Catullus 16. The iconic first line (pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo, lit: “I will butt-fuck and face-fuck you”) is rendered as “beware the mighty sodomite face bandit”. Right off the bat, this rendering seems oddly sanitized (a strange critique for a translation employing the imagery and vocabulary of BDSM). While other, older translations default to rendering pedicare as “sodomize” (single word translations of pedicare are hard to come by in American English), the choice to retain “sodomite” in this much less literal translation seems deeply traditional and runs counter to Williams’s stated aims (especially with the juridical connotations carried by the word).

On the whole however, I very much enjoyed Williams’s take and would very much recommend this to anyone in need of a Catullus wholly unsuitable for schoolboys!

[Raven]

"I love doing this, let's/
Take a long position, swell the/
Abacus with kisses."

"To deal with my responses I make them public/
In a disciplined explosion."

"Your soft mouth for hours forever/
So stick that on your gilt-framed reproduction."

"Let me do that/
Japanese thing/
Juventius/
Lick your eyeball"

[Miba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mixed feelings about some of them (probably where I don't quite get the modern cultural references or it seems to have strayed too far from the Latin) but it's worth buying for the incredible translations of poems 5 and 85 alone.

[Judiejodia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some are meh but the good ones are so good I want to bite this book

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Translation is a knotty problem even without preemptively tying one's hands with a gimmick, and shibari is a shocking thing to bind a near-entire Catullus translation to, but the translator was bound and determined to tie it all together beautifully in one charming little volume.

[Der blaue Buchling · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like the translation/reimagination/recontextualization happening here. Feels like poetry that is alive. A few of my favorite parts:

Break, break, break, love gods and gorgeous people. [3]

Oh Latonia’s daughter/of greatest (masculine)/
great (feminine)/progeny of Jove
whom mother/by the/pertaining to Delos/
bore (gave birth to)/olive tree [34]

Acme lightly raised her head,
Kissed her lover’s pooling eyes
With scarlet lips and said, ‘My darling
Septimillus, we’ll stay bound
In just one service, and I’ll feel it
More than you because you’ll seal it
On my skin with melted wax’ [45]

Mouth crammed with earth
Limbs hot and clumsy with longing
High tide pounding my skull
Trashed headlights and a windscreen
Crazed to opacity [51]

And for ever like the tide, my brother,
I come to claim you and to let you go [101]

[Reader · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book about play, with words and with people. It is a witty take on Catullus, modernising the already difficult prose and giving it a literal twist. Thrilling poetry, which in being almost entirely unerotic, is no less fascinating for that.

[scarlettraces · Rating 5 out of 5]

Can't decide if these are beautifully odd or oddly beautiful. Stunning translations either way.