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]¹ se dicit mulier mea nubere malle
Quam mihi, non [si se]² Iuppiter ipse petat. 
Dicit: sed mulier cupido quod dicit amanti
In vento et rapida scribere oportet aqua.³

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Orff • J. Reuland

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without footnotes

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

¹ Orff: "O mea Lesbia! Nulli"
² Orff: "si"
³ Orff adds

Catullus et Caelius exeunt. Applaudunt senes dicentes: 
Senes
Placet, placet, placet,
optime, optime, optime!

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]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Michael Linton , "Nulli se dicit mulier", first performed 2014 [ baritone and piano ], from Carmina Catulli, no. 11 [sung text not yet checked]
by Carl Orff (1895 - 1982), "[V]. O mea Lesbia", 1940-43, published 1943 [ soli and orchestra ], from cantata Catulli Carmina, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
by Jacques Reuland (b. 1918), "Carmen LXX", from Canzoniere, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in English, a translation by Dominick Argento (1927 - 2019) ; composed by Dominick Argento.
- Go to the text.
Also set in French (Français), a translation by Georges Lafaye (1854 - 1927) ; composed by Darius Milhaud.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
SPA Spanish (Español) (Saúl Botero Restrepo) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

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

Choose for Diff

[My]¹ lady says there's nobody she'd rather marry
than me, even if Jupiter himself were to [court her]².
So she says: but what a woman says to an eager lover
is fit to be written on the wind and rushing water.³

Available sung text translations: ← What is this?

• C. Orff

About the headline (FAQ)

View text without 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"

¹ Orff: "O my Lesbia! My"
² Orff: "ask"
³ Orff adds

Catullus and Caelius exit. The old men applaud, saying: 
Old men
Bravo, bravo, bravo,
very good, very good, very good!

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.

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