Catullus 4

That boat which you see, guests,
says that it was the swiftest of ships,
nor the speed of any sailing plank
it was unable to surpass, whether with oars
work may have been, or with a sail.
And it denies that the menacing Adriatic's
shore denies this, or the Cyclades Islands
and famous Rhodes and the rough Thracian
Propontis or the pitiless Pontic sea
where that afterwards a boat before was
a leafy forest; for on a Cytorian ridge,
with talking leaves it often spread whistling.
Pontic Amastris and boxwood-bearing Cytorus,
to you, that these were and are very known
the boat says: from its farthest beginning,
it says that it stood on your peak,
dipped its "oars" in your water,
and thence through so many unruly straits,
bore its master (if left or on the right
winds called, or if a favorable wind
fell upon each foot at the same time),
and that not any vows to the gods of the shore
were made by it when it came from the
most recent sea right on to this limpid lake.
But these things were before: now in hidden
repose it is old and dedicates itself to you,
twin Castor and twin of Castor.

Phaselus ille, quem videtis, hospites,
ait fuisse navium celerrimus,
neque ullius natantis impetum trabis
nequisse praeterire, sive palmulis
opus foret volare sive linteō.
Et hoc negat minacis hadriatici
negāre litus Insulāsve Cycladās
Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thraciam
Propontida trucemve Ponticum sinum,
ubi iste post phaselus antea fuit
comāta silva; nam Cyrōtiō in iugō
loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma.
Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer,
tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima
ait phaselus, ultimā ex origine
tuō stetisse dicit in cacūmine,
tuō imbuisse palmulās in aequore,
et inde tot per impotentia fretā
erum tulisse (laevă sive dexterā
vocaret aura, sive utrumque Iuppiter
simul secundus incidisset in pedem),
neque ulla vota litoralibus deis
sibi esse facta, cum veniret a mari
novissimo hunc ad usque limpidum lacum.
Sed haec prius fuere: nunc reconditā
senet quiete seque dedicat tibi,
gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.

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