Catullus V: Ad Lesbiam

Salvete omnes! I’ve decided that before I jump into something as daunting as Ovid’s Amores, I’d like to do a standalone translation of Catullus. This poem is very sweet, it’s one of my favorites of his. Catullus was a controversial figure who oscillated between scathing and insulting poetry and sweet and loving poetry (as encapsulated in his famous Odi et Amo poem, Catullus 85). Without further ado, Catullus V, or Ad Lesbiam:

Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,

rumoresque senum severiorum

omes unius aestimemus assis!

soles occidere et redire possunt:

nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,

nox est perpetua una dormienda.

da mi basia mille, deinde centum,

dein mille altera, dein secundum centum,

deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.

dein, cum milia multa fecerimus,

conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,

aut ne quis malus invidere possit,

cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,

and let us value all the rumors of the severe old men

as one coin!

Suns can set and rise again:

for us, when the brief light at once has set,

one everlasting night must be slept.

Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

then another thousand, then a second hundred,

then all the way up to another thousand, then a hundred.

Then, when we have made many thousands,

we will mix them all up, so that we don’t know,

or anyone wicked is not able to envy,

when he knows that there has been such a great amount of kisses.

This poem is so sweet to me, it tells us about Catullus and his lover, how he asks that they love with reckless abandon, disregarding any old men who look down on them. He says that while they’re young they must make the most of it, and when they have kissed thousands of times, nobody will be able to envy them, because nobody will be able to keep track of the amount that they have kissed. It’s just a quick love poem, I wanted to work on it because Catullus is a little more entertaining to me than Ovid. I might just switch to translating Catullus, he has some really fun poems. In any case, I hope you enjoyed! Valete!