Catullus 5 in Latin: “Let us live, my Lesbia”
Written in the first century BC, this is one of the most famous love poems in any language. In thirteen lines Catullus dismisses the disapproval of old men, looks straight at death, and then demands an absurd number of kisses.
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The text and translation
Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus, Rūmōrēsque senum sevēriōrum Omnēs ūnius aestimēmus assis!
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, and value all the rumours of rather strict old men at one penny!
Word by word
- Vīvāmus
- let us live
- mea
- my
- Lesbia
- Lesbia
- atque
- and
- amēmus
- let us love
- Rūmōrēsque
- and the rumours
- senum
- of old men
- sevēriōrum
- rather strict
- Omnēs
- all
- ūnius
- at one
- aestimēmus
- let us value
- assis
- penny
Sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt: Nōbīs, cum semel occidit brevis lūx, Nox est perpetua ūna dormienda.
Suns can set and return: for us, when once the brief light has set, there is one everlasting night to be slept.
Word by word
- Sōlēs
- suns
- occidere
- to set
- et
- and
- redīre
- to return
- possunt
- can
- Nōbīs
- for us
- cum
- when
- semel
- once
- occidit
- has set
- brevis
- brief
- lūx
- light
- Nox
- night
- est
- there is
- perpetua
- everlasting
- ūna
- one
- dormienda
- to be slept
Dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum, Dein mīlle altera, dein secunda centum, Deinde ūsque altera mīlle, deinde centum,
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred, then another thousand, then a second hundred, then still another thousand, then a hundred.
Word by word
- Dā
- give
- mī
- me
- bāsia
- kisses
- mīlle
- a thousand
- deinde
- then
- centum
- a hundred
- Dein
- then
- mīlle
- a thousand
- altera
- another
- dein
- then
- secunda
- a second
- centum
- hundred
- Deinde
- then
- ūsque
- on and on
- altera
- another
- mīlle
- thousand
- deinde
- then
- centum
- a hundred
Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus, Conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus, Aut nē quis malus invidēre possit, Cum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.
Then, when we have made many thousands, we will muddle them up, so that we do not know, or so that no wicked person can cast the evil eye, when he knows there are so many kisses.
Word by word
- Dein
- then
- cum
- when
- mīlia
- thousands
- multa
- many
- fēcerīmus
- we have made
- Conturbābimus
- we will muddle up
- illa
- them
- nē
- so that not
- sciāmus
- we know
- Aut
- or
- nē
- so that not
- quis
- anyone
- malus
- wicked
- invidēre
- to cast the evil eye
- possit
- can
- Cum
- when
- tantum
- so many
- sciat
- he knows
- esse
- there are
- bāsiōrum
- of kisses
What to notice
- Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus means “let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love”. The -āmus and -ēmus endings make this “let us”. The lines over vowels mark long sounds and were added by modern editors.
- ūnius aestimēmus assis means “let us value at one penny”. An as was a small copper coin, so this is about as rude as a shrug.
- Nox est perpetua ūna dormienda means “there is one everlasting night to be slept”. The turn from kisses to death and back takes only a few words.
- Conturbābimus illa means “we will muddle them up”. The verb belongs to accounting: he is scrambling the tally, so that no one can count their kisses and curse them.
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Sources
Catullus, Carmen 5 (ed. Merrill), Latin Wikisource; English: literal translation by Claude (AI)
Text licence: Public domain.
Language pack licence: Texts public domain; annotation and translations CC BY-SA 4.0.
Texts: Latin Wikisource (public domain; Catullus ed. Merrill, with long-vowel marks; the Vulgate passages in the Clementine text). English: Douay-Rheims (public domain) for the Vulgate passages; other sentence translations and all tagging by Claude (AI), checked against Wiktionary; not yet reviewed by a person.
The introduction and notes on this page were written by Claude (AI). Word glosses are AI-assisted, and so is the English unless the source above names another translator.