7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 1/30
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 2/30
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 3/30
3
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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)
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 4/30
4
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 5/30
5
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 6/30
6
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.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 7/30
7
Catullus, Tibullus and Pervigilium Veneris. Translated by F.W.
Cornish. Cambridge. Harvard University Press. 1962.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 8/30
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)
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.65
Gaius Valerius Catullus
Translator : Elton
TO LESBIA
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 9/30
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 10/30
10
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 11/30
11
A “cuckold” is a man whose wife is “cheating” on him.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
The Poems of Catullus and Tibullus and the Vigil of Venus. A
literal prose translation with notes by Walter K. Kelly, to
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 12/30
12
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.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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,
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 13/30
13
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
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.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
Translator : John Langhorne (1735-1779)
Published 1766
V. To Lesbia
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 14/30
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.
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
Gaius Valerius Catullus
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 15/30
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 16/30
16
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 17/30
17
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 18/30
18
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 19/30
19
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 20/30
20
arranged according to subject by Jacob Rabinowitz. Spring
Publications, Inc. Dallas, Texas. 1991.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 21/30
21
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.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
Translator: C.H. Sisson
V
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 22/30
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 23/30
23
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 24/30
24
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 25/30
25
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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.
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 26/30
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 27/30
27
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.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
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,
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 28/30
28
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.
Gaius Valerius Catullus
Translator : Ruth Sheffield Dement
Published 1915
V. To Lesbia (A paraphrase)
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 29/30
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!--
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'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
7/21/2019 Sonnet 5 to Lesbia Various Translations
http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/sonnet-5-to-lesbia-various-translations 30/30
Fletcher Seymour and used with his permission.