Thursday, August 23, 2007

Catullus #5

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love
And value at one cent
The talk of lousy old men.
Suns will fix themselves and rise.
For us, when the brief light has fixed forever
There remains only the sleep of one unending night.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
Then another thousand, then a second hundred,
Then even another thousand, and then a hundred.
Then, when we have done a many thousand kisses
We will lose our counting, and will not know it.
Nor will any evil person look at us with disapproval
When he sees our kisses number in such neverending ways.

1 comment:

Keith Andrew Massey said...

It's such a beautiful poem. And all the more sad considering how this love affair would end.
I made a song out of the Latin original. I hope you enjoy it:
Let us live and let us love

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