I can’t think of a better poem than Catullus 5 for a warm spring day. I recited this at a friend’s wedding once and the bride swooned.
Let us live, my darling, and let us love
And let us regard the disapproving looks of the old men
As we would a penny in the gutter.
The sun rises and falls every day.
But for us, brief light will set one evening,
And we will sleep forever.
So, give me a thousand kisses, and then a hundred;
Then another thousand, then a hundred following close on,
Then even a third thousand. Then a hundred.
And when we have kissed so many thousands of times
We will be so confused that we won’t know how much we’ve loved,
nor will anyone else know exactly how much
to glower at us with envy.
For the purists, here’s the Latin.
Viuamus mea Lesbia. atque amemus.
rumoresque senum seueriorum
omnes unius aestimemus assis.
soles occidere et redire possunt.
nobis cum semel occidit breuis 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 inuidere possit
cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.
More from Catullus tomorrow.
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