Catullus 5

Catullus 5 in Latin and English

Catullus 5 is a passionate ode to Lesbia and one of the most famous poems by Catullus. The poem encourages lovers to scorn the snide comments of others, and to live only for each other, since life is brief and death brings a night of perpetual sleep. This poem has been translated and imitated many times.

This poem is written in the Phalaecian hendecasyllabic meter (Latin: hendecasyllabus phalaecius) ^[1] which has verses of 11 syllables, a common form in Catullus' poetry.

Metric scheme: X X | — ∪ ∪ | — ∪ | — ∪ | — X

Text

Catullus 5 in Latin

Vīvāmus, mea Lesbia, atque amēmus,

rūmōrēsque senum sevēriōrum

omnēs ūnius aestimēmus assis!

sōlēs occidere et redīre possunt:

nōbīs, quum 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, quum mīlia multa fēcerīmus,

conturbābimus illa, nē sciāmus,

aut nē quis malus invidēre possit,

quum tantum sciat esse bāsiōrum.

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,

and count the rumours of rather stern old men

at a penny's fee!

Suns may set and rise again;

for us, when once the brief light has set,

an eternal night must be slept.

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 performed many thousands,

we shall shake them into confusion, ^[2] in order that we might not know,

and in order not to let any evil person envy us,

when he knows that there are so many of our kisses.

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. Furthermore, there is also a second chiasmus in these lines:

brevis	lux	nox	perpetua
A	B	B	A

Translations and songs

In 1601, the English composer, poet and physician Thomas Campion wrote this rhyming free translation of the first half (to which he added two verses of his own, and music, to create a lute song):

My sweetest Lesbia, let us live and love;
And though the sager sort our deeds reprove,
Let us not weigh them. Heaven's great lamps do dive
Into their west, and straight again revive,
But soon as once is set our little light,
Then must we sleep one ever-during night.

Ben Jonson drew on the poem in poems 5, "Song. To Celia", and 6, "Song. To the Same" in his collection The Forrest.

Soon thereafter, Sir Walter Raleigh included the following verse, apparently based on Campion's translation, in his The Historie of the World, which he wrote while imprisoned in the Tower of London: ^{[3] [4]}

The Sunne may set and rise
But we contrariwise
Sleepe after our short light
One everlasting night.

A 16th-century French translation by Jean-Antoine de Baïf was used by Reynaldo Hahn in the song "Vivons, mignarde, vivons". ^[5] Also set in French, a translation by Georges Lafaye was composed by Darius Milhaud as song "Ma chérie, aimons‑nous". ^[6]

Henry Purcell used an anonymous translation in his song "Let us, kind Lesbia, give away" (1684). ^[7]

Dominick Argento used his English translation in his song "Let us live, my Clodia, and let us love". ^[8]

References

1. Green, Peter (2005). The Poems of Catullus: A Bilingual Edition. p. 48.
2. Perhaps on the abacus. Harry L. Levy: "Catullus, 5, 7–11 and the Abacus", American Journal of Philology , Vol. 62, No. 2 (1941), JSTOR   290834, pp. 222–224
3. James A[ndrew] S[carborough] McPeek (1939). Catullus in Strange and Distant Britain. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. ASIN B0006CPVJM.
4. Lucas, D. W. (June 1940). "Catullus in English literature". The Classical Review . 54 (2): 93. doi:10.1017/S0009840X00098231. JSTOR   703619. S2CID   163421789. Review of McPeek's book.
5. "Vivons, mignarde ! | Vivons, mignarde, vivons | LiederNet".
6. "Ma chérie, aimons-nous | Ma chérie, aimons-nous... Les feux du soleil peuvent mourir et renaître | LiederNet".
7. "Let us, kind Lesbia, give away | Let us, kind Lesbia, give away | LiederNet".
8. "Let us live, my Clodia, and let us love | LiederNet".

Bibliography

• Commager, S (1964). "The Structure of Catullus 5". The Classical Journal . 59: 361–364.
• Fredricksmeyer, EA (1970). "Observations on Catullus 5". American Journal of Philology . 91 (4): 431–445. doi:10.2307/293083. JSTOR   293083.
• Grimm, RE (1963). "Catullus 5 Again". The Classical Journal . 59: 16–21.
• Grummel, WC (1954). "Vivamus, mea Lesbia". Classical Bulletin. 31: 19–21.
• Pratt, NT (1956). "The Numerical Catullus 5". Classical Philology . 51 (2): 99–100. doi:10.1086/364015. S2CID   161200606.
• Segal, C (1968). "Catullus 5 and 7: A Study in Complementaries". American Journal of Philology . 89 (3): 284–301. doi:10.2307/293446. JSTOR   293446.