Catullus Poem 5

• vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus,

  Let us live, my Lesbia, and love,
• rumoresque senum severiorum

  
  

  and value all the stories of those rather strict old men

• omnes unius aestimemus assis!

  at a single as!
• soles occidere et redire possunt:

  Suns can set and rise again,
• nobis cum semel occidit brevis lux,

  but when once the brief light has set for us,
• nox est perpetua una dormienda.

  [there is just] one everlasting night for us to sleep through.
• da mi basia mille, deinde centum,

  Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred,
• dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,

  then another thousand, [and] then a second hundred,
• deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum.

  then yet another thousand, and then a hundred. continuously.
• dein, cum milia multa fecerimus,

  
  

  Then, when we have had many thousands, we have made
• conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus

  we shall mix them all up, so that we do not know,
• aut ne quis malus invidere possit,

  nor can some evil person cast his spell upon us
• cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.

  when he knows what is the total of kisses.