Catullus 5: An Easier Prose Story

After working through the difficulty of Catullus 4, I was immensely—immensely—grateful when I turned to Catullus 5 and immediately recognized the famous opening line. A somewhat simple poem! Indeed, let us live and love indeed!

Still, I do remember when I first read this poem when I was a beginning Latin student. It’s straightforward to me now, but it wasn’t then. The genitive of value and those final lines with the cum clauses and negative purposes clauses and the dropping of ali- from aliquis left me scratching my head a little. Still, I thought it was a fun poem, and it is a fun poem.

Every generation can relate to a bunch of grumpy people from the earlier generations raining on their own parade. It’s a playful celebration of love and desire, of the people we love and of life itself. It winks at cultural expectations and norms, and then it just as delightfully chucks them out the window.

I hope you enjoy my take on the poem. A few lines are out of order to fit the arc of the story as I was relating it, but this also allows Lesbia to playfully tease Catullus about his desire to not have only one kiss, but a thousand, then a hundred.

If you are feeling up for a nautical adventure of a poem, click this link to read Catullus 4. This is quite the undertaking for me, and I really appreciate hearing from people who read what I write.

I’m looking forward to seeing what’s next with Catullus 6.

Actually, scratch that. I just peeked ahead.

Wish me luck. 😅

Catullus 5: An Easier Prose Story

Catullus cum Lesbiā per forum ambulat. Catullus Lesbiam amat, et Lesbia Catullum amat. Multī hominēs in forō sunt. Forum plēnum hominum est, sed Catullus cum Lesbiā est. Nīl refert Catullō multōs hominēs in forō esse. Nīl refert Catullō multōs esse senēs sevēriōrēs.[1] Amor rēgnet et vincat! Catullus cum Lesbiā ambulat!

Catullus in forō flōrem videt et capit.

“Ecce, Lesbia, tibi flōrem habeō,” et Catullus Lesbiae flōrem dat.

Lesbia flōrem accipit rīdēns. 

“Et iam iam dā mī bāsia!”[2] Catullus exclāmat.

“Hīc?! In forō?” Lesbia attonita rogat.

“Hīc. Ubīque.[3] Ubicumque[4] ego tēcum sum, tē dare mī bāsia volō!” Catullus iterum exclāmat.

Multī senēs in forō sunt, et multī senēs Catullus et Lesbiam spectant. Lesbia sevērōs senēs[5] videt et rubēscit. Sevērī et īrātī videntur. Catullus exclāmāns senēs sevērōs nōn dēlectat.

“Quid senēs[6] dīcant sī mē tibi dantem bāsia videant? Rūmōrēs senum sevēriōrum[7] horribilēs sunt,” Lesbia rogat.

Catullus pecūniam—ūnum assem—ē sinū removet, et assem[8] prīmō senibus sevērīs[9] et deinde Lesbiae dēmōnstrat. Catullus deinde, magnā cum vōce, exclāmat, “Ego ipse aestimō omnēs rūmōrēs senum sevēriōrum ūnīus assis![10] Nōs omnēs rūmōrēs senum sevēriōrum ūnīus assis aestimēmus![11]

Ūllī virī et ūllae fēminae ambulantēs in forō Catullus exclāmantem audiunt et rīdent. Omnēs senēs[12] multō sevēriōrēs[13] et īrātiōrēs videntur. 

Lesbia rīdet et rīdet.

Catullus vōce magnā in forō adhūc exclāmāns dīcit, “Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus!”[14]

Lesbia rīdet et respondet, “Dabō tibi bāsium.”

Lesbia ad Catullum it ut bāsium eī det, sed Catullus statim respondet, “Minimē, mea Lesbia. Dā mī bāsia mīlle,[15] nōn modo ūnum. Et deinde centum[16] bāsiōrum volō!”

Lesbia rīdēns respondet, “Et quid tenēre volēs postquam dederō tibi mīlle et centum bāsiōrum? Volēsne deinde usque altera mīlle,[17] deinde secunda centum[18] tenēre? Quot bāsiōrum tenēre vērō vīs?”

Catullus rīdet et exclāmat, “Sine dubiō dein volam mīlle altera,[19] et dein centum[20]bāsiōrum tuōrum. Quis velit pauciōra bāsiōrum?”

(Omnēs senēs severissī[21] videntur quia Catullus in forō dē amōre et bāsiīs adhūc exclāmat. Quālis iuvenis dē amōre in forō exclāmet?)

Lesbia senēs sevērissimōs[22] iterum spectat. Rogat, “Et sī aliquis invideat[23] nōbīs quia multa bāsia teneāmus… Quid agēmus?”

Catullus statim respondet, “Cum mīlia multa bāsia fēcerīmus,[24] nōs conturbābimus[25] omnia illa bāsia!”

Lesbia rīdēns rogat, “Cūr conturbābimus illa[26] bāsia?” 

Catullus quoque rīdēns respondet, “Nē nōs sciāmus[27]—aut nē quis malus possit invidēre[28] nōbīs—cum sciat esse tantum bāsiōrum.”[29]

Lesbia rīdet, “Sed tū ipse nesciās quot bāsiōrum nōs teneāmus!”

Catullus rīdet, “Itaque, incipere dēbeāmus. Dā mī prīmum bāsium, Lesbia! Sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt,[30] sed iam iam lūx brevis[31] est. Ecce! Lūx iam occidit.[32] Cum brevis lūx semel nōbīs occidit,[33] nox perpetua ūnā dormienda est[34]nōbīs.”

Lesbia rīdet, Catullō bāsium dāns, et ē forō eunt. 

[1] Rather severe old men

[2] Give me kisses

[3] Everywhere

[4] Wherever

[5] Severe old men

[6] Old men

[7] The rumors of more severe old men

[8] It’s okay to laugh once to get it out of your system. An as, or an assis depending on the author, was a copper coin of little value. Penny is often used to translate the word in modern poetry.

[9] To the severe old men

[10] I value all the rumors of the more severe old men at one penny.

[11] Let us all value the rumors of more severe old men at a penny.

[12] Old men

[13] More severe

[14] Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love

[15] Give me a thousand kisses

[16] Then a hundred

[17] Then continuously another thousand

[18] Then a second hundred

[19] Then another thousand

[20] Then a hundred

[21] Very severe old men

[22] Very severe old men

[23] May envy

[24] When we will have made many thousand kisses

[25] We will mix

[26] Why will we mix those

[27] So that we don’t know

[28] So that anyone evil may not envy

[29] When he knows only that there are so many kisses

[30] Suns are able to set and return

[31] Light is brief

[32] The light is setting

[33] When the brief light sets once for us,

[34] The one perpetual night must be slept

Catullus 5: In English Word Order

Mea Lesbia, vīvāmus atque amēmus, -que omnēs aestimēmus rūmōrēs sevēriōrum senum ūnius assis! Sōlēs  possunt occidere et redīre: Cum brevis lūx semel occidit nōbīs, ūna perpetua nox dormienda est. Dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum, dein mīlle altera, dein secunda centum, deinde ūsque altera mīlle, deinde centum. Dein, cum fēcerīmus multa mīlia, conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus, aut nē (ali)quis malus possit invidēre possit, cum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.

Catullus 5: The Original Poem

Vīvāmus mea Lesbia, atque amēmus,
rūmōrēsque senum sevēriōrum
omnēs ūnius aestimēmus assis!
Sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt:
nōbīs cum semel occidit brevis lūx,
nox est perpetua ūna dormienda.
Dā mī bāsia mīlle, deinde centum,
dein mīlle altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde ūsque altera mīlle, deinde centum.
Dein, cum mīlia multa fēcerīmus,
conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus,
aut nē quis malus invidēre possit,
cum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.

The image for this title page comes from the British Library’s catalogue of illuminated manuscripts. I am grateful that the image is dedicated to the public domain. I have done minor photoshop editing to clarify the image, crop it, and add a heading for the poem.