Phaselus ille, quem videtis, hospites,

ait fuisse navium celerrimus,

neque ullius natantis impetum trabis

nequisse praeterire, sive palmulis

opus foret volare sive linteo.

et hoc negat minacis Hadriatici

negare litus insulasve Cycladas

Rhodumque nobilem horridamque Thracia

Propontida trucemve Ponticum sinum,

ubi iste post phaselus antea fuit

comata silva; nam Cytorio in iugo

loquente saepe sibilum edidit coma.

Amastri Pontica et Cytore buxifer,

tibi haec fuisse et esse cognitissima

ait phaselus: ultima ex origine

tuo stetisse dicit in cacumine,

tuo imbuisse palmulas in aequore,

et inde tot per impotentia freta

erum tulisse, laeva sive dextera

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 recondita

senet quiete seque dedicat tibi,

gemelle Castor et gemelle Castoris.

This boat/light ship which you see, guests,

says that it was the fastest of ships

and it was not unable to pass by

the rapid motion of the other ships

Whether by oar or by sail it needed to fly.

And it denies that the shore of the threatening Adriatic denied this

or the Cyclades Islands and noble Rhodes

and the dreadful Thracian wind

or the savage Pontic gulf

Where this boat was previously a leafy tree;

for on the Cytorian ridge it gave out a whistling sound

with speaking foliage.

Pontic Amastris amd boxwood bearing Cytorus,

the boat says that these things were and are well-known to you

from the earliest origin it says that it stood on your peak

it wet (its) oars in your sea

and from there through so many violent seas

it bore (its) master, whether a favorable or unfavorable breeze calls

whether a favorable  wind rushed upon each one at the same time;

Nor were any offerings made to the gods of the shore by it

When it came very recently from the sea to this clear lake.

But all these things were before; now it is old in secluded rest

and it dedicates itself to you,

Twin Castor and Castor's twin.

• The meter here is Iambic Trimeter or "pure iambic": u - / u - / u - / u - / u - / u - ; if you recite it according to the rhythm, it sounds much akin to the slapping of waves against a boat hull as it sails.
• l 2: "celerrimus" should be accusative, but it is nominative, according to the Greek construction -- the ship speaks with a Greek accent.
• ll 2 - 9; 14 - 18, extended indirect statements
• note that in line 18 - 21, the grammatical order of the sentence is jumbled, showing the rough seas -- when we enter the "limpidum lacum", the construction settles down
• line 21, "simul...incidisset", mimics the sound of whistling wind; l 12, the wind appears again, whistling through the trees
• line 24, use of the liquid consonants, "limpidum lacum" yields a soothing sound
• Make sure to see the references to Castor and Pollux