V. "Vivamus mea Lesbia &c"
V.
"Vivamus mea Lesbia &c" [1]
Let us Lesbia, ever loving,
Live out life's so fleeting day,
Heed not sages stern reproving,
Heed not what the rigid say.
Lo! the Sun extinct appearing,5
In the depths of Ocean lies,
Soon Aurora's whispers cheering,
O'er the hills shall bid him rise.
But when death's perpetual slumbers
Once have sealed our eyes in night,10
Magic charms, nor magic numbers,
Wake us to no second light.
While the fates are yet consenting,
Now with kisses crown our joy,
Kisses countless still preventing15
Numbering of the curious eye.
Notes
[1] EDITOR'S NOTE: "Let us Lesbia, ever loving" does not appear in Psyche, with Other Poems or Mary (or Collected Poems and Journals) and is undated in Verses. It presents a verse translation of Catullus's 13-line Carmina poem 5 (“Let us live, my Lesbia, and love,” Francis Cornish translation):
Vivamus, mea Lesbia, atque amemus,
rumoresque senum severiorum
omnes unius aestimemus assis.
soles occidere
et redire possunt:
nobis, cum semel occidit brevis lux,5
nox est perpetua una dormienda.
da mi basia mille, deinde
centum,
dein mille altera, dein secunda centum,
deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum,
dein, cum milia multa
fecerimus,10
conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,
aut ne quis malus invidere possit,
cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.
