translation of Catullus 5
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
and let us value all the rumors of the
stern old men at just a single penny.
The sun may rise and set;
but once our brief day ends,
we must sleep one eternal night.
Give me a thousand kisses, then a hundred;
then another thousand, and a second hundred;
then yet another thousand, and a hundred more.
Then, when we have made many thousands of kisses
we will lose count, so that even we don't know how many,
and so that the jealous cannot look down on us,
when they know how many kisses we've had.
