Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations

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Gaius Valerius Catullus

Catullus V

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.



2

Gaius Valerius Catallus: Catallus VVivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemusLet us live, my Lesbia and let us love

rumoresque senum severioeumand all the rumors of austere old men

omnes unius aestimemus assisLet us value one penny

Soles occidere et redire possunt:Suns can set and return for us:

nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,when once the brief light has set

nox estperpetua una dormienda.(there) is one perpetual night (that) must be slept.

Da mi basia mille, deinde centum.Give me a thousand kisses then a hundred

dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,then another thousand then a second hundred

deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.then still another thousand, then a hundred

dein, cum milia multa feceriums,then, when (we will) have made many thousands

counturbabimus illa, ne sciamuswe will mix them up, so that we won’t know

aut ne quis malus invidere possit,nor can any jealous man envy us

cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.when he knows how many kisses there are.



3


Translator : Thomas Campion (1567-1619)

V. To Lesbia

My sweetest Lesbia let vs liue and loue,

And though the sager sort our deedes reproue,

Let vs not way them: heau'ns great lampes doe diue

Into their west, and strait againe reuiue,

But soone as once set is our little light,

The must we sleepe one euer-during night.

If all would lead their liues in loue like mee,

Then bloudie swords and armour should not be,

No drum nor trumpet peaceful sleepes should moue,

Vnles alar'me came from the campe of loue:

But fooles do liue, and wast their little light,

And seeke with paine their euer-during night.

When timely death my life and fortune ends,

Let not my hearse be vext with mourning friends

But let all louers rich in triumph come,

And with sweet pastimes grace my happie tombe;

And Lesbia close vp thou my little light,

And crowne with loue my euer-during night.

(Bibliography goes here)



4


Translator: Samuel Taylor Coleridge

To Lesbia for Kisses

My Lesbia, let us love and live,

And to the winds, my Lesbia, give

Each cold restraint, each boding fear

Of age and all her saws severe.

Yon sun now posting to the main

Will set--but 'tis to rise again:--

But we, when once our mortal light

Is set, must sleep in endless night!

Then come, with whom alone I'll live,

A thousand kisses take and give!

Another thousand! to the store

Add hundreds--then a thousand more!

And when they to a million mount,

Let confusion take the account,--That you, the number never knowing,

May continue still bestowing--

That I for joys may never pine,

Which never can again be mine!

(Published 1798)

William A. Aiken. The Poems of Catullus. Translated into

English by Various Hands, Assembled, Arranged and Edited in

Commemoration of the Two Thousandth Anniversary of the Poet's

Death. New York. E.P. Dutton &CO., Inc. 1950. p.66-67



5


Translator : Frank O. Copley

V. To Lesbia

I said to her, darling, I said

let's LIVE and

let's LOVE and

what do we care what those old

purveyors of joylessness say?(they can go to hell, all of them)

the Sun dies every night

in the morning he's there again

you and I, now,

when our briefly tiny light flicks out,

it's night for us, one single

everlasting

Night.

give me a kiss, a hundred a thousand kisses,

a fifty eleven seven hundred thousand

kisses, and let'sdo it all over again

Darling

how many, how many, you say?

mix them up; it's bad luck



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to know how many; wouldn't want people

to count, them, up

somebody might have the Evil Eye

and if he knew he just might

BEWITCH

them.

The Complete Poetry . Translated, with an Introduction, by Frank

O. Copley. Ann Arbor. The University of Michigan Press. 1957.

First edition as an Ann Arbor Paperback 1964.


Translator: F.W. Cornish

V

Let us live, my Lesbia, and love, and value at one

farthing all the talk of crabbed old men.

Suns may set and rise again. For us, when the

short light has once set, remains to be slept the

sleep of one unbroken night.

Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then

another thousand, then a second hundred, then yet

another thousand, then a hundred. Then, when we

have made up many thousands, we will confuse our

counting, that we may not know the reckoning, norany malicious person blight them with evil eye, when

he knows that our kisses are so many.



7

Catullus, Tibullus and Pervigilium Veneris. Translated by F.W.

Cornish. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1962.


Translator : Richard Crashaw (1613-1649)

V. To Lesbia Out of Catullus

Come and let us live my Deare,

Let us love and never feare,

What the sowrest Fathers say:Brightest Sol that dyes to day

Lives againe as blith to morrow,

But if we darke sons of sorrow

Set; o then, how long a Night



8

Shuts the Eyes of our short light!

Then let amorous kisses dwell

On our lips, begin and tell

A Thousand, and a Hundred, score

An Hundred, and a Thousand more,

Till another Thousand smother

That, and that wipe of another.

Thus at last when we have numbred

Many a Thousand, many a Hundred;

Wee'l confound the reckoning quite,

And lose our selves in wild delight:

While our joyes so multiply,

As shall mocke the envious eye.

(Published 1648)




Death. New York. E.P. Dutton &CO., Inc. 1950. p.65


Translator : Elton

TO LESBIA



9

Let us, my Lesbia! live and love;

Though the old should disapprove:

Let us rate their saws severe

At the worth of a denier.

Suns can set beneath the main,

And lift their faded orbs again:

But we, when sets our scanted light,

Must slumber in perpetual night.

Give me, then, a thousand kisses

Add a hundred billing blisses:

Give me a thousand kisses more;

Then repeat the hundred o'er:

Give me other thousand kisses

Give me other hundred blisses;

And when thousands now are done,

Let us confuse them every one:

That we the number cannot know;

And none that saw us kissing so,

Might glut his envious busy spleen,

By counting o'er the kisses that had been.

The Poems of Catullus and Tibullus and the Vigil of Venus. A

literal prose translation with notes by Walter K. Kelly, to

which are added the metrical versions of Lamb and Grainger and a

selection of versions by other writers. G. Bell and Sons, Ltd.

London. 1919.



10


V. To Lesbia

COME, Lesbia, let us live and love,

nor give a damn what sour old men say.The sun that sets may rise againbut when our light

has sunk into the earth,it is gone forever.

Give me a thousand kisses,then a hundred, another thousand,another hundred

and in one breathstill kiss another thousand,

another hundred.O then with lips and bodies joined

many deep thousands;confuse

their number,so that poor fools and cuckolds (envious

even now) shall neverlearn our wealth and curse uswith theirevil eyes.

Gaius Valerius Catullus. The Poems of Catullus. Translated by

Horace Gregory. 1931.

NOTES: Catullus himself was born in about 84 B.C. and died inabout 54 B.C. He wrote many poems to his beloved Lesbia. The

final poems of his collection to Lesbia describe his agony when

she leaves him.



11

A “cuckold” is a man whose wife is “cheating” on him.


Translator : Walter K.Kelley

V. TO LESBIA

Let us live and love, my Lesbia, and a farthing for all the

talk of morose old sages! Suns may set and rise again; but we,

when once our brief light has set, must sleep through a

perpetual night. Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

then another thousand, then a second hundred, then still another

thousand, then a hundred. Then when we shall have made up many

thousands, we will confuse the reckoning, so that we ourselves

may not know their amount, nor any spiteful person have it in

his power to envy us when he knows that our kisses were so many.





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London. 1919.


Translator : George Lamb

V. TO LESBIA

Love, my Lesbia, while we live;

Value all the cross advice

That the surly greybeards giveAt a single farthing's price.

Suns that set again may rise;

We, when once our fleeting light,



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Once our day in darkness dies,

Sleep in one eternal night.

Give me kisses thousand-fold,

Add to them a hundred more;

Other thousands still be told

Other hundreds o'er and o'er.

But, with thousands when we burn,

Mix, confuse the sums at last,

That we may not blushing learn

All that have between us past.

None shall know to what amount

Envy's due for so much bliss;

None--for none shall ever count

All the kisses we will kiss.

The Poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus. Translated by George

Lamb. London: J. Murray. 1821.

RS: check whether those are the same versions





London. 1919.


Translator : John Langhorne (1735-1779)

Published 1766

V. To Lesbia



14

Lesbia, live to love and pleasure,

Careless what the grave may say:

When each moment is a treasure

Why should lovers lose a day?

Setting suns shall rise in glory,

But when little life is o'er,

There's an end of all the story--

We shall sleep, and wake no more.

Give me, then, a thousand kisses,

Twice ten thousand more bestow,

Till the sum of boundless blisses

Neither we nor envy know.




Death. New York. E.P. Dutton & CO., Inc. 1950. p.66




15

Translator : Guy Lee

V. To Lesbia

We should live, my Lesbia, and love

And value all the talk of stricter

Old men at a single penny.

Suns can set and rise again;

For us, once our brief light has set,

There's one unending night for sleeping.

Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

Then another thousand, then a second hundred,

Then still another thousand, then a hundred;

Then, when we've made many thousands,

We'll muddle them so as not to know

Or lest some villain overlook us

Knowing the total of our kisses.

The Poems of Catullus. Edited with an Introduction, Translation

and Brief Notes by Guy Lee. Oxford University Press. Oxford.

New York. 1991.



16


Translator : Jack Lindsay

V. To Lesbia

Quick, Lesbia, let us live and love

At a brass farthing let us reckon

the talk of old morose-eyed men.

Suns sink, and burn again above;

with us, when the brief light is broken,

there's one long night and sleep that's blind.

Give me a thousand kisses then,

a hundred, thousand, hundred more,

and then a thousand from your store,

a hundred, till in kissing-maze

we lose our counting in a daze

and cheat malicious men who find

their wondering envy flag behind.

Catullus: The Complete Poems. A new translation with

introduction and commentary by Jack Lindsay. Sylvan Press.1948.



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Translator : Charles Martin

Published 1979

V. To Lesbia

Lesbia, let us live only for loving,

and let us value at a single penny

all the loose flap of senile busybodies!

Suns when they set are capable of rising,

but at the setting of our own brief light

night is one sleep from which we never waken.

Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

another thousand next, another hundred,

a thousand without pause & then a hundred,

until when we have run up our thousands

we will cry bankrupt, hiding our assets

from ourselves & any who would harm us,knowing the volume of our trade in kisses

The Poems of Catullus. Translated by Charles Martin. Baltimore and London.

The Johns Hopkins University Press. 1990.



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Translators: Reney Myers and

Robert J. Ormsby

V. To Lesbia

Lesbia, let us live and love,

And think what crabbed old men resent,

With all their talk, not worth a cent.The sun which sets returns above,

But once our short-lived light shall die,

In endless darkness we must lie.

So kiss me, give me a thousand kisses,

Another thousand, hundreds more,

Then hundred thousands by the score,

Confusing all men with our blisses,

So they can't cast an evil spell

Who can't keep count of kisses well.

Catullus: The Complete Poems for American Readers. Translatedby Reney Myers and Robert J. Ormsby. E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc.

New York. 1970.



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Translator : Jacob Rabinowitz

39-5 V. To Lesbia

The time to live, the time to love, is now. What our

parents think about it means nothing to us.

It can't wait. Every morning the sun returns to life--

our light is brief as a day, our night is an endless sleep.

Give me a hundred kisses, a thousand, ten thousand, into

the millions, into infinity,

I've got to lose count, lose myself, lose my distrust.

Give me a hundred kisses, a thousand, ten thousand,if I haven't lost count I know there aren't enough.

Gaius Valerius Catullus's Complete Poetic Works. Translated,

annotated, introduced with biographical essays and newly



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arranged according to subject by Jacob Rabinowitz. Spring

Publications, Inc. Dallas, Texas. 1991.


Translators: Frederic Raphael and

Kenneth McLeish

V. To Lesbia

We can live, my Lesbia, and love.

What do you mean, people are talking?

Asinine rumours, old husbands' tales;

You could mount their wits on a farthing.



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The sun rises (they tell us); the sun sets,

Rises and sets again. But not for you and me:

For us it happens once. Our day dies;

Night comes, and in that night we sleep

Forever. So, for ever, kiss me now.

A thousand, so...a hundred, good...

Another thousand, and a hundred more...

Another thousand...hundred...thousand...

We must do it over and over--

It's obvious--surely you see?

If even we lose track of the figures,

No one can tax us for loving at all.

The Poems of Catullus. Translated by Frederic Raphael and

Kenneth McLeish. David R. Godine, Publisher. Boston. 1979.


Translator: C.H. Sisson

V



22

Living, dear Lesbia, is useless without loving:

The observations of the censorious old

Are worth a penny every piece of advice.

One day follows another, the sun comes back

But when once we have gone away we do not;

Once night comes for us, it is night for ever.

Give me a thousand kisses, and then a hundred,

Then give me a second thousand, a second hundred

And then another thousand, and then a hundred

And when we have made up many, many thousands

Let us forget to count. Better not to know--

It will bring someone's jealous eye upon us

If people know we give so many kisses.

The Poetry of Catullus. Translated by C.H. Sisson. The Orion

Press. New York. 1967.



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Translator : Roy Arthur Swanson

V. To Lesbia

Lesbia, let's live and love

without one thought for gossip of

the boys grown old and stern.

Suns go down and can return,

but, once put out our own brief light,

we sleep through one eternal night.

Give me a thousand, a hundred kisses,

another thousand, a second hundred,

a thousand complete, a hundred repeat;

and when we've many thousand more,

we'll scramble them, forget the score

so Malice cannot know how high

the count, and cast its evil eye.

Odi et amo: The Complete Poetry of Catullus. Translated, with

an Introduction, by Roy Arthur Swanson. The Liberal Arts Press.

New York. 1959.



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Translator: Arthur Symons

5

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

Old men's sayings are for old men wise enough:

Give them a farthing for the price of the stuff.

Suns may set and suns upon earth arise:

As for us, when for us the brief light dies,

There is only night, and an everlasting sleeping.

Give me a thousand kisses, then; be heaping

A hundred upon a thousand, then a second hundred

Upon another thousand, and another hundred;

Then, when the number has up to a myriad mounted,

Let us lose the reckoning, lest our love should be

counted,

And we or another envying us should guess

How many kisses make up our happiness.

From Catullus: Chiefly Concerning Lesbia. By Arthur Symons.

London: Martin Secker. 1924.



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Translator : J.H.A. Tremenheere

V. To Lesbia

Let's live and love, O Lesbia mine,

And value at a single copper

Chatter of grey-beards too too proper!

The setting sun again will shine;

But once has set our little light

We sleep for ever one unbroken Night.Give me a thousand kisses then,

And now a hundred, and again

A thousand, and a hundred yet,

And this and that reiterate!

When these to many thousands mount

Jumble them up--for fear we count

Or Malice look with envious eye

On kisses mounting up so high!

The Lesbia of Catullus. Arranged and Translated by J.H.A.

Tremenheere. Philosophical Library. New York. 1962.





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more & then a

hundred & a

thousand more again

till with so many

hundred thousand

kisses you & I

shall both lose count

nor any can

from envy of

so much of kissing

put his finger

on the number

of sweet kisses

you of me &

I of you,

darling, have had.

The Poems of Catullus. Translated with an introduction by Peter

Whigham. University of California Press. Berkeley and Los

Angeles. 1966.


Translators: Celia and Louis Zukofsky

V. To Lesbia

May we live, my Lesbia, love while we may,

and as for the asseverating seniors

estimate them as one naught we won't assess.Suns will hurry to set and will rise--likely:

but for us it all means when the brief light sets,

night is perpetual, and we are dormant.

Dear, kiss me a thousand times, then a hundred,



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then another thousand, another hundred

and another thousand, another hundred,

and when we've roused that multitude of thousands,

confounding their number we will know no sum

of them that a malicious eye may envy

while it keeps counting the many times we've kissed.

Catullus Gai Valeri Catulli Veronensis Liber . Translated by

Celia and Louis Zukofsky. Cape Goliard Press London in

Association with Grossman Publishers New York. 1969.


Translator : Ruth Sheffield Dement

Published 1915

V. To Lesbia (A paraphrase)



29

Lesbia, Lesbia, live to live!

And Lesbia, Lesbia, live to love!

The poor little life that the little gods give

Glints like the laugh of the stars above,

And is gone

With the dawn.

Evening on evening the azure cup

Drops from its rim the wine-red sun;

Morning on morning it dips it up

Out of the east where the shadows run.

But Lesbia, Lesbia, night comes fast,

And night for us means an endless sleep

With never a blush of a life-love, past,

But stillness and void and a dreamless deep!

Then kiss me, Lesbia, twenty-fold!

Kiss me, sweetheart, a thousand more!

Kiss me, dear, till the game grows old,

Then kiss me double the times before!

Mine the madness that wrings the heart,

Thine the gladness, and thine the art

Fine and cruel that drains the breath,

Mine that was, now thine till death!

Yet never a word of your love for me!Our infinite kisses must secret be.

For the gods that change and love again

Send death to the faithful loves of men!

No kiss of mine shall my secret tell--

That I love you truly and long and well!--



Commemoration of the Two Thousandth Anniversary of the Poet'sDeath. New York. E.P. Dutton &CO., Inc. 1950. pages 67-68.

Originally taken from: The Lesbiad of Catullus...and Songs of a

Wayfarer, by Ruth Sheffield Dement. Copyright 1915 by Ralph



Fletcher Seymour and used with his permission.

Documents

Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations