Hugh McFadden, POEM No. 1. THE DEDICATION: TO CORNELIUS (AFTER CATULLUS)
To whom shall I present this dainty new book
freshly polished up and smoothed with parched pumice?
To you, Cornelius: for you always noticed
my fragmentary trifles were still worthwhile;
back then, when you alone among Italians
dared to explicate the whole world’s history
in three volumes _ well-versed and hard-wrought, by Jove!
So here it is, this little book: take and keep
it, such as it is, for all that it is worth;
and, O Muse, may it live for more than an Age.
Gaius Valerius Catullus, I. AD CORNELIUM
1. cui dono lepidum nouum libellum
2. arida modo pumice expolitum.
3. Corneli tibi namque tu solebas
4. meas esse aliquid putare nugas
5. iam tum cum ausus es unus Italorum
6. omne aeuum tribus explicare cartis
7. doctis Iuppiter et laboriosis.
8. quare habe tibi quidquid hoc libelli
9. qualecumque quidem est. patroni et ergo
10. plus uno maneat perenne saeclo.
Hugh McFadden was born in Derry, Northern Ireland, but has lived in Dublin since childhood. He has had poems published in a variety of literary magazines, including AQUARIUS, ARABESQUE, BELFAST REVIEW, BROADSHEET (ed. Hayden Murphy), THE CORK REVIEW, CYPHERS, GREAT BOOK OF IRELAND, IRISH UNIVERSITY REVIEW, OAK, POETRY IRELAND NEWS, POETRY IRELAND REVIEW, THE RED WHEELBARROW, REVIVAL (Limerick), and THE STONY THURSDAY BOOK. His first collection, CITIES OF MIRRORS, was published by Beaver Row Press. A second collection, PIECES OF TIME, was published in 2004 by Lapwing Press. His SELECTED POEMS, subtitled ELEGIES AND EPIPHANIES, was published in 2005 by Lagan Press, Belfast. He is the executor of the literary estate of the late Irish writer, John Jordan, the founding editor of POETRY IRELAND/POETRY IRELAND REVIEW. He edited THE COLLECTED POEMS OF JOHN JORDAN (Dedalus Press, 1991), THE COLLECTED OF JOHN JORDAN (Poolbeg, 1991), and CRYSTAL CLEAR: THE SELECTED PROSE OF JOHN JORDAN, published by Lilliput Press, Dublin, in 2006. He works as a freelance writer and journalist in Dublin.
