Catullus 5


Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus,

rūmōrēsque senum sevēriōrum

omnēs ūnius aestimēmus assis!

sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt:

nōbīs cum semel occidit brevis lux,

nox est perpetua ūna dormienda.

dā mī bāsia mille, deinde centum,

dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,

deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.

dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus,

conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus,

aut nē quis malus invidēre possit,

cum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.



Let us live and love, my Lesbia, and value at a single penny all the slanderings of the too strict old men! Suns may set and return, but we, when once our brief light has fallen, must sleep a single everlasting night. Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred, then another thousand again, then a hundred. Then, when we have many thousands, we’ll mix them up, so as not to know their total, and so that no evil person can be jealous, when he knows how many kisses there are.



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