by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c.84 BCE - c.54 BCE) was one of the most influential Roman poets of the 1st century BCE. Of Catullus life little is known for sure. He was born on the Palatine hill of Rome. He was an offspring of a leading family from Verona, but... Gaius Valerius Catullus

Latin text

Vivamus, mea Lesbia is the A pen name or nom de plume is a pseudonym adopted by an author. Nom de plume is a French-language expression. Allonym is another synonym for pseudonym. Some authors take on pen names to conceal their identity: for example the Bront sisters, who felt they would... 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.

English Translation

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love
And let us value all rumors of strict old men
At a single penny.
Suns can set and rise again;
For us, after the death of one brief light,
We must sleep one unending night.
Give to me a thousand kisses, then a hundred;
Then another thousand, then a second hundred;
Then in between another thousand, then a hundred;
Then, when we have done many thousands,
We will confuse them, lest we know the number,
Or any evil one be able to cast the evil eye upon us,
When he knows the number of kisses.

Meter/scansion

A quantitative metre used by Catullus. The pattern is as follows (L = long syllable, s = short syllable, | = foot division): L L | L s s | L s | L s | L s (spondee | dactyl | trochee | trochee | trochee) The first foot is also often a trochee (L s) and sometimes an iamb (s... Hendecasyllables (epigram). A trochee is a metrical foot used in formal poetry. It consists of a long syllable followed by a short one. Apart from the famous case of Longfellows Hiawatha, this metre is rare in English verse, except with an extra long syllable added to each line, as in this... Trochee Dactyl may mean: A dactyl, a creature in Greek mythology. A dactyl, an element of meter in poetry. Dactyl, the small asteroid orbiting the larger asteroid 243 Ida as a natural satellite. This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the... Dactyl Trochee Trochee Trochee.

General comments

This is a quite literal (rather than poetic) English translation of the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. Centuries: 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - 1st century Decades: 130s BC 120s BC 110s BC 100s BC 90s BC - 80s BC - 70s BC 60s BC 50s BC 40s BC 30s BC Years: 89 BC 88 BC 87 BC 86 BC 85 BC - 84 BC - 83... Catullus's poem, numbered 5, entitled "To Lesbia is the A pen name or nom de plume is a pseudonym adopted by an author. Nom de plume is a French-language expression. Allonym is another synonym for pseudonym. Some authors take on pen names to conceal their identity: for example the Bront sisters, who felt they would... Lesbia, About Kisses." Lesbia was a prominent Roman woman with whom Catullus had a somewhat obsessive, "love/hate" relationship. Because this poem is quite early in the collection, Catullus had not yet become bitter and angry at her. Instead, it is considered to show the "careless joy" of their first fling. It is a significant part of the collection because it is written as a love poem in epigram, indicating the level which Catullus held their relationship, and conversely, how he held the epigram style. In other words, this is a personal note to his The term girlfriend is usually used in one of two senses, each implying a kind of intimate friendship: When describing a girl or woman as girlfriend of a heterosexual woman, it is usually used in terms of very close friends. It usually has no sexual or romantic connotation in that... girlfriend. It is also one of the most famous of the entire collection (probably for its comparatively wholesome content), along with the Sparrow poems (2, 2b, and 3).

Sources

• Catullus website (http://www.negenborn.net/catullus/) Last modified July 2004. Written by Rudy Negenborn.
• Catullus translation and text. (http://www.vroma.org/~hwalker/VRomaCatullus/Catullus.html)
• Whitakers Words: An awesome online dictionary. (http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe)
• Fordyce, C. J. Catullus, a commentary. Oxford University Press, Great Britain, 1961
• Lee, Guy. Catullus, a new translation. Oxford University Press, Great Britain, 1990
• Lewis, C.T. Elementary Latin Dictionary. Oxford University Press, Oxford, Great Britain, 1894
• Loeb Classical Library. Catullus translations by F.W. Cornish. Revised by G.P. Goold. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1913 (this edition 1995)
• Wiseman, T. P. Catullus and his World, a reappraisal. Cambridge University Press, Great Britain, 1985