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Catullus 5 is a poem by Catullus. This poem concerns his love of Lesbia. This seems to have been written at a very passionate stage of the affair.

Contents 1 Text And Translation 2 Connotations Of The Text 3 Poetic Effects 4 Vocabulary 5 Metre

[edit] Text And Translation

Line	Latin Text	English Translation
1	Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,	Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
2	rumoresque senum severiorum	and let us value all the rumors
3	omnes unius aestimemus assis!	of rather severe old men as one penny!
4	soles occidere et redire possunt;	Suns are able to set and return;
5	nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux,	for us, once the brief light sets,
6	nox est perpetua una dormienda.	there is one perpetual night to be slept through.
7	da mi basia mille, deinde centum,	Give me one thousand kisses, then one hundred,
8	dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,	then one thousand others, then a second one hundred,
9	deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum;	then on continuously into one thousand others, then one hundred.
10	dein, cum milia multa fecerimus,	Then, when we have counted up many thousands,
11	conturbabimus, illa ne sciamus,	we will mix them up, lest we know that number,
12	aut ne quis malus invidere possit	or any evil one is able to envy us
13	cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.	when he knows how many kisses there were.

[edit] Connotations Of The Text

• Lines 2-3

This is a reference to the gossip going around the Senate, as it was believed that Catullus was having an affair with a senator's wife, known as Clodia. This is also thought to be the woman Lesbia in his poetry. Catullus is urging Clodia to disregard what people are saying about them, so she can spend more time with him.

• Line 5

brevis lux - "brief light"

A pessimstic view of life, and the belief of no afterlife. This was a belief at odds with most Romans, who believed in the afterlife.

He also uses this view as an argument as to why Lesbia should spend lots of time with him.

• Line 11

conturbabimus illa - throw those accounts into confusion

This hopes that the evil ones will not know the specific numbers of kisses, therefore reducing the effectiveness of any potential spell. [See Below].

• Line 12

malus invidere possit - [a person] casts the evil eye upon

This is linked to the belief of witchcraft. In the practice of witchcraft it was believed that if the evil one knew of certain numbers relevant to the victims (in this case the number of kisses) then the spell would be much more effective.

[edit] Poetic Effects

• Line 5-6

The position of lux - light, and nox - night right next to each other serve to emphasise his two comparisons. Symbolically, the "perpetual night" represents death and the "brief light" represents life.

[edit] Vocabulary

• Line 2

rumor, -oris, m. - rumour; gossip

severus, -a, -um - serious; strict

• Line 3

unius - (Gen.of unus) - [value of] one

aestimare - value; estimate

as, assis, m. - a penny; a farthing

• Line 4

sol, solis, m. - sun

occido, -ere, -cidi, -cisum - fall; fall down; set

• Line 5

semel (adv.) - once; once and for all

• Line 7

basium, -ii, n. - a kiss

• Line 8

dein (abbrev. of deinde) - then; afterward

• Line 9

usque (adv.) - right up to; as much as; continually

• Line 10

fecerimus (fut. perf. indic.) - we shall have made

• Line 11

conturbare - throw into confusion

scio, scire, scivi, scitum - know; have knowledge of

• Line 12

invideo, invidi, invisum - cast the evil eye upon; envy; grudge

[edit] Metre

The poem is written in the hendecasyllable style.