We had too much time to find for ourselves

[sovay]

I translated this tonight for one of strange_selkie's projects-in-progress and she said I should post it, so that's my excuse. Have some Catullus 5:

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love
and to the gossip of censorious old men
give all the credit of a copper coin.
Suns can set and return again:
with us, once our brief light is gone,
one unending night is ours to sleep.
So give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
then a thousand again, then a second hundred,
then straight on another thousand, then a hundred,
then after making up so many thousands
we will scatter them all, so that we may not know
and neither can any ill-wisher look us awry,
when he knows the number of our kisses.

Comments

[seishonagon.livejournal.com]

It's probably my favorite short poem (i.e., not an epic) in the Latin language.

I notice you mentioned this as a work in progress; are you eventually going to translate the whole set, or just selections? Either way, I'm excited to see more, as your translations are gorgeous.

[sovay]

I notice you mentioned this as a work in progress; are you eventually going to translate the whole set, or just selections?

Well, the work in progress is strange_selkie's, but I love Catullus.

Either way, I'm excited to see more, as your translations are gorgeous.

Thank you! I'll try to keep it up . . .