External audio

Catullus 16 (English), read by Louis Zukofsky, PennSound

Line	Latin text	English translation[19][20][21][22]
1	Pēdīcābō ego vōs et irrumābō,	I will sodomize you and face-fuck you,
2	Aurēlī pathice et cinaede Fūrī,	bottom Aurelius and catamite Furius,
3	quī mē ex versiculīs meīs putāstis,	you who think, because my poems
4	quod sunt molliculī, parum pudīcum.	are sensitive, that I have no shame.
5	Nam castum esse decet pium poētam	For it's proper for a devoted poet to be moral
6	ipsum, versiculōs nihil necesse est;	himself, [but] in no way is it necessary for his poems.
7	quī tum dēnique habent salem ac lepōrem,	In point of fact, these have wit and charm,
8	sī sint molliculī ac parum pudīcī	if they are sensitive and a little shameless,
9	et quod prūriat incitāre possunt,	and can arouse an itch,
10	nōn dīcō puerīs, sed hīs pilōsīs	and I don't mean in boys, but in those hairy old men
11	quī dūrōs nequeunt movēre lumbōs.	who can't get it up.[23]
12	Vōs, quod mīlia multa bāsiōrum	Because you've read my countless kisses,[24]
13	lēgistis male mē marem putātis?	you think less of me as a man?
14	Pēdīcābō ego vōs et irrumābō.	I will sodomize you and face-fuck you.

Sexual terminology

Latin is an exact language for obscene acts, such as pedicabo and irrumabo, which appear in the first and last lines of the poem. The term pedicare is a transitive verb, meaning to "insert one's penis into another person's anus".^[25] The term cinaedus in line 2 refers to the "bottom" person in that act, i.e., the one being penetrated.^[26] The term irrumare is likewise a transitive verb, meaning to "insert one's penis into another person's mouth for suckling",^[27] and derives from the Latin word, rūma meaning "udder" (as in: "to give something to suck on"). A male who suckles a penis is denoted as a fellator or, equivalently, a pathicus (line 2).^[28]Catullus neither confirms nor denies the claim of Aurelius and Furius that he is "not a man", since sexual slang "irrumare" and "pedicare" while having sexual slang meaning of homosexuality, could also mean as little as "go to hell".^[29]

Pedagogy[edit source]

Paul Allen Miller suggests Catullus 16 contains information regarding:

1. the historical mutability of socially accepted behavior
2. the constructed nature of sexual identity
3. the nature and function of gender
4. the omnipresence and play of both power and resistance
5. the admonitory and optative function of poetic art^[30]