My lady says there's nobody she'd rather marry

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by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c84 BCE - 54 BCE)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle

Language: Latin

Our translations: ENG SPA

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Nulli se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
Quam mihi, non si se Iuppiter ipse petat. 
Dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Orff • J. Reuland

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Confirmed with S. G. Owen, ed., Catullus: with the Pervigilium Veneris, London: Lawrence and Bullen, 1893, page 114.

Text Authorship:

by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c84 BCE - 54 BCE), no title, appears in Carmina, no. 70 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]

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Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , John Versmoren , Grant Hicks [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 4
Word count: 32

My lady says there's nobody she'd rather...

Language: English after the Latin

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My lady says there's nobody she'd rather marry
than me, even if Jupiter himself were to court her.
So she says: but what a woman says to an eager lover
is fit to be written on the wind and rushing water.

Available sung text translations: ← What is this?

• C. Orff

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Translations of titles:
"Carmen LXX" = "Carmen LXX"
"Nulli se dicit mulier" = "My lady says there's nobody"
"[V]. O mea Lesbia" = "[V]. O my Lesbia"

Text Authorship:

Translation from Latin to English copyright © 2026 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Latin by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c84 BCE - 54 BCE), no title, appears in Carmina, no. 70
- Go to the text page.

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This text was added to the website: 2026-08-06
Line count: 4
Word count: 45