O funde noster seu Sabine seu Tiburs

(nam te esse Tiburtem autumant, quibus non est

cordi Catullum laedere; at quibus cordi est,

quovis Sabinum pignore esse contendunt),

sed seu Sabine sive verius Tiburs,

fui libenter in tua suburbana

villa, malamque pectore expuli tussim,

non inmerenti quam mihi meus venter,

dum sumptuosas appeto, dedit, cenas.

nam, Sestianus dum volo esse conviva,

orationem in Antium petitorem

plenam veneni et pestilentiae legi.

hic me gravedo frigida et frequens tussis

quassauit usque, dum in tuum sinum fugi,

et me recuravi otioque et urtica.

quare refectus maximas tibi grates

ago, meum quod non es ulta peccatum.

nec deprecor iam, si nefaria scripta

Sesti recepso, quin grauedinem et tussim

non mihi, sed ipsi Sestio ferat frigus,

qui tunc vocat me, cum malum librum legi.

Oh, my farm, whether Sabine or Tiburnian

(For they call you Tiburnian to whom it is not pleasing

to harm Catulllus; but to whom it is pleasing

they call (you) Sabine, betting anything)

but whether Sabine or moree truly Tiburnian

I was gladly in your villa close to the city

and I banished a bad cough from (my) chest,

which my stomach gave to me not undeserved

when I sought dinners:

for, when I wished to be a guest of Sestian guest

I read an oration against the candidate Antius

full of poison and pestilence.

At this point a cold and constant coughing

shook me continuously, when I fled into your embrace,

and I cured myself with leisure and stinging nettles.

Therefore made new I give you greatest thanks

Because you did not avenge my mistake.

Nor do I pray, if I will take back the horrible wirtings of Sestius

to prevent the frigidity from carrying the head cold and cough

not to me, but to Sestius himself,

who only then invites me when I have read his bad book.

• In this poem, Catullus is making fun of more bad writing, blaming that writing for giving him a bad cold.
• The person he is mocking is probably Publius Sestius, a minor public official. Cicero mentions him in some of his writings, pointing out the faults of Sestius's writing style.
• some things that stand out: the excessive use of alliteration, the lawerly language in the beginning (sed seu Sabine sive verius Tiburs), clinical medical language in line 15 (me recuravi otioque et urtica), use of archaism (recepso, grates ago) -- all point to a non-neoteric style of writing. Catullus is evidently making fun of Sestius's writing style by copying it for his poem.
• the term "frigus" can also refer to writing style, "frigid" writing style -- stilted, affected, using inappropriate writing style (according to Aristotle)
• written in choliambic -- meter of satire
• Also voiced as a long prayer: ll 1-5, invocation; ll 6 - 12, the service performed by the deity for the supplicant; ll 13 - 21, thanksgiving