T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
To Lesbia, I
By Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84–c. 54 B.C.)(Translated by George Lamb, 1821) |
LOVE, my Lesbia, while we live, | |
| Value all the cross advice | |
| That the surly greybeards give | |
| At a single farthing’s price. | |
| Suns that set again may rise; | 5 |
| We, when once our fleeting light, | |
| Once our day in darkness dies, | |
| Sleep in one eternal night. | |
| Give me kisses thousand-fold, | |
| Add to them a hundred more; | 10 |
| Other thousands still be told | |
| Others hundreds o’er and o’er. | |
| But, with thousands when we burn, | |
| Mix, confuse the sums at last, | |
| That we may not blushing learn | 15 |
| 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. | 20 |