Catullus 13

Cenabis bene, mi Fabulle, apud me
paucis, si tibi di favent, diebus,
si tecum attuleris bonam atque magnam
cenam, non sine candida puella
et uino et sale et omnibus cachinnis.
haec si, inquam, attuleris, uenuste noster,
cenabis bene; nam tui Catulli
plenus sacculus est aranearum.
sed contra accipies meros amores
seu quid suavius elegantiusue est:
nam unguentum dabo, quod meae puellae
donarunt Veneres Cupidinesque,
quod tu cum olfacies, deos rogabis,
totum ut te faciant, Fabulle, nasum.

My attempt at a verse translation:

You will dine well at my house
if the gods favour you, my Fabullus,
and you bring with you a meal,
good and large and a pretty girl
and wine and health and laughter.
So I say, if you bring this, my friend,
you will dine well: for your Catullus
has a purse full of cobwebs.
But you will still receive fine love,
better and sweeter than any wine:
for I will give perfume, which love
gives to my sweet girl,
which when you smell, you will wish
the gods, Fabullus, to make you all a nose.

This delightful poem shows what Catullus saw as the most important elements of a meal, showing his down-to-earth attitudes which were totally in opposition to the attitudes of the wealthy set of Rome of the time. This theme of friendship being more important than wealth is found throughout the Latin poets, especially in Horace.

You will dine well, my Fabullus, at my house,
In a few days, if the gods will it.
But only if you bring good food -- and plenty of it.
And don't come without a fair-skinned woman,
And wine and wit and all kinds of loud laughter.
If these you bring, I say,
You will eat well, my handsome;
For the purse of your Catullus is full of cobwebs.
But in return, you will receive pure love,
Or, if you prefer, whatever is sweeter and more elegant:
For I will give you the perfume which Venuses
And Cupids gave my girl;
And when you smell it, you will ask the gods
To make you, Fabullus, all nose.

Notes:

• The poem is in hendecasyllabic meter
• Fair skin (line 4) was considered, in Roman times a mark of beauty
• The word "wit" in line 5 is actually, in the Latin, "sale", which can mean both salt and wit -- Fabullus will have to bring not just the food, but all the condiments as well, including laughter