I signed up and/or downloaded several AI image-generating services recently. For kicks, I have started to post poetry and descriptions from classic novels to see what the results are. I started the process using one of the most celebrated poems ever: Catullus 85:

Ōdī et amō. Quārē id faciam fortasse requīris.
Nesciŏ, sed fierī sentiō et excrucior.

There are many English translations and interpretations, so I went with Wikipedia:

I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask.
I know not, but I feel it happening and I am tortured

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So, I posted this into DALL-E. The word “torture” was flagged as not appropriate, so I went with Google’s stock translation (which was accepted):

I hate and I love. Wherefore I do this, perhaps you ask.
I do not know, but I feel it being done and I am tormented.

DALL-E generated 4 options:

Catullus 85 – 1

Catullus 85 – 2

Catullus 85 – 3

Catullus 85 – 4

Options one and two are cheerfully banal, but three and four have a slight spark. Option three is my winner. And DiffusionBee seems to follow the same tack, generating this one image from the original text (no issues, it seems, with the word torture):

Catullus 85 – DiffusionBee

Craiyon‘s output definitely felt more teenage angsty. Their AI obvious has the machine soul of a poet:

Catullus 85 – Craiyon

Will try again tomorrow with something completely different.