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218 The Translator’s Invisibilityassortment of colloquialisms, some British (“a bit more bum” (no. 39)),most American, chosen from different periods in the twentieth centuryand affiliated with different social groups: “side-kick” (no. 11),“canapes” (no. 13), “don’t conk out” (no. 23), “collared” (no. 35),“faggots” (no. 36), “moochers” (no. 37), “hunk” (no. 39), “amigos” (no.41), “sub-urban” (no. 44), “con” (no. 86), “bra” (no. 55), “hick” (no. 55),“kid” (no. 56), “mug” (no. 57), “homo” (no. 81). In the homophoniccontext created by the Zukofskys’ translation method, individualwords echo, becoming nodes of different dialects and discourses. In no.70 (quoted on p. 215), “say” can also mean “for the sake of argument,”“for example,”or even be a clipped form of the archaic “save”; “see”can be an abbreviated form of “you see.” These possibilities give apunchy, colloquial turn to the phrasing, gangster lingo with anElizabethan archness: “Newly, say, dickered”; “none, see, save Jupiter.”A line in no. 17—“your lake’s most total paludal puke”—sounds like a1950s teenage hipster. There is even a trace of black dialect (“pa’s truebro” (no. 111), “they quick” (no. 56)), most pronounced in one of thestrongest translations:O rem ridiculum, Cato, et iocosam,dignamque auribus et tuo cachinno.ride, quidquid amas, Cato, Catullum:res est ridicula et nimis iocosa.deprendi modo pupulum puellaetrusantem: hunc ego, si placet Dionae,protelo rigida mea cecidi.Cato, it was absurd, just too amusing,fit for your ears & fit to make you cackle!You’ll laugh if you love your Catullus, Cato:it was absurd & really too amusing!Just now I came across a young boy swivinghis girlfriend, and—don’t take offense now, Venus!I pinned him to his business with my skewer.(Martin 1990, no. 56)O ram ridicule home, Cato, the jokes somedig, now cool your ears so the two cock in—no.Read: they quick, kid, almost as Cato, Catullus:raciest ridicule it may not miss jokes.