Catullus 5 in Latin & English: Vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus!
Channel: David Amster
Date: 2020-07-29

Catulli Carmen V  Ad Lesbiam*

#catullus
#latinpoetry
#latinpronunciation

Erratum: the S in Lesbia should be an S sound, not a Z sound :) 

Vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
rumoresque senum severiorum
omnes 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 secunda 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 the rumors of the very stern old folk
let us consider them all worth 
no more than a single bronze coin! 
Suns are able to set and rise again.
For us, once this brief light has set
there is a single perpetual night that must be slept. 
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
then another thousand, then a second hundred, 
and then even another thousand, then a hundred! 
Then, when we have completed many thousands,
we will mix them all up, lest we know,
or lest some wicked person could cast the evil eye upon us,
when they know exactly how many kisses there are. 

Translation DWA
Fez, 7/29/20

*If you are new to Catullus, please note that “Lesbia” is the pseudonym he uses for his mistress Clodia, to protect her identity and to honor her by alluding to Sappho, the brilliant Greek poet from Lesbos. 

Artwork and Images:

Fresco of a late Roman Republican private banquet, Herculaneum, Italy, c.50 BC.

Marble bust of a man, Roman, mid 1st century AD

Roman Bronze coin, Quadrans, 280 BC

Sunset at the Roman ruins of Tyre, Lebanon

Triumphal Arch of Constantine, Rome, 315 AD

Dido and Aeneas, Roman fresco, 10 BC-45 AD, Pompeii, Italy

Roman mosaic, couple on daybed, Centocelle, Rome, first century AD

“Roman Frieze”, Sebastian Luciu, 1898

L'Invidia (Envy), marble sculpture, Giusto Le Court, 1660-1670

Roman Skull Mosaic, “Memento Mori,” 1 BC, Naples Archeological Museum