catullus SAC

catullus V

Let us live, (o) my Lesbia, & let us love,

& let us value all the rumours of rather harsh old men

‘to be worth (of) a single coin!

The suns can set & ‘rise’:

When once light briefly fell for us,

‘We must sleep’ together ‘for an entire night’

Give (to) me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,

Then another thousand, then a second hundred,

Then even another thousand, then a hundred.

Then, when we (will) have made many thousands ‘of kisses’,

We will ‘jumble the count’ so that we may not know,

Or so that ‘no one’ may be able to ‘cast the evil eye’,

When he may know how many (of) kisses there were.

Catullus VII

You ask, ‘how many ‘of’ your kisses,

Lesbia, ‘are’ enough & more than **enough for me.

As great ‘as’ the number of African sands

lying at herb-bearing Cyrene

Between agitated Jupiter’s oracle

And old Battus’ sacred tomb;

Or as many stars, when night is silent,

‘seeing’ people’s se || cret loves:

So many kisses

‘are’ enough & more than enough for mad Catullus to kiss you,

Which neither the curious ‘are’ able to count

nor an evil tongue ‘can’ bewitch.

Catullus VIII

(O) Poor Catullus, you ‘should’ stop ‘being’ a fool,

And you ‘should’ consider what you see to have lost ‘as’ lost.

Once the suns shone brightly for you,

When you regularly came to where ‘your’ girl,

loved by ‘me; as no ‘other woman’ will be loved, led ‘you’.

There when those many joys took place,

which you wished for & ‘your’ girl did not refuse,

the suns truly shone brightly for you.

Now she isn’t willing: you, powerless, be unwilling too,

& neither chase her / she who flees, || nor live sadly,

But, with a stubborn mind, endure, & stand firm.

Goodbye, (o) ‘sweetheart’ now Catullus stands firm,

& he’ll neither look for you nor will he ask an unwilling you.

But you will be sorry, when you won’t be ‘courted’ at all.

(O) Wicked ‘woman’, alas for you, what life awaits you?

Who will ‘come’ to you now? To whom will you seem beautiful?

Whom will you love now? Whose ‘girl’ will you be said to be?

Whom will you kiss? ‘Whose’ lips will you bite?

But you, (o) Catullus, stand firm & determined

Catullus LI

He seems to me to be equal to a god,

he, if it’s possible, seems to surpass the gods,

who, sitting opposite, repeatedly

watches & hears

you laughing sweetly, which robs all

feelings from miserable me; for as soon as I

looked at you,

(o) Lesbia, there’s nothing of ‘my’

voice left in my mouth

but my tongue is numb, a fine flame spreads down

‘my’ ears ring with their ‘very’ own sound,

& my eyes are covered with double

the darkness

Catullus LXX

My woman says that she prefers to marry no

one other

than me, not even if Jupiter himself may ask her

‘that’s what’ she says: but ‘what’ a

woman says to a loving lover

she ought to write in the wind & running water

Catullus VII - ending

We will ‘jumble the count’ so that we may not know,

Or so that ‘no one’ may be able to ‘cast the evil eye’,

When he may know how many (of) kisses there were.