How Many Kisses
By Gaius Valerius Catullus
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
My Lesbia, you want to know how many
kisses would be enough to satisfy?
As many as the many grains of sand
in silphium-rich Cyrene, which lie
between the shrine of Jupiter in heat
and the most sainted sepulchre of Battus.
As many as the stars in still of night
watching the furtive lovemakings of men.
Only to get from you that many kisses
would satisfy your aching, mad Catullus,
a number far beyond the reckonings
of busybodies or the tongue most jealous.
The Original:
Quaeris, quot mihi bāsiātiōnēs
tuae, Lesbia, sint satis superque.
Quam magnus numerus Libyssae arēnae
lāsarpīciferīs iacet Cyrēnīs
ōrāclum Iovis inter aestuōsī
et Battī veteris sacrum sepulchrum;
aut quam sīdera multa, cum tacet nox,
fūrtīvōs hominum vident amōrēs:
tam tē bāsia multa bāsiāre
vēsānō satis et super Catullō est,
quae nec pernumerāre cūriōsī
possint nec malā fascināre linguā.
By Gaius Valerius Catullus
Translated by A.Z. Foreman
My Lesbia, you want to know how many
kisses would be enough to satisfy?
As many as the many grains of sand
in silphium-rich Cyrene, which lie
between the shrine of Jupiter in heat
and the most sainted sepulchre of Battus.
As many as the stars in still of night
watching the furtive lovemakings of men.
Only to get from you that many kisses
would satisfy your aching, mad Catullus,
a number far beyond the reckonings
of busybodies or the tongue most jealous.
The Original:
Quaeris, quot mihi bāsiātiōnēs
tuae, Lesbia, sint satis superque.
Quam magnus numerus Libyssae arēnae
lāsarpīciferīs iacet Cyrēnīs
ōrāclum Iovis inter aestuōsī
et Battī veteris sacrum sepulchrum;
aut quam sīdera multa, cum tacet nox,
fūrtīvōs hominum vident amōrēs:
tam tē bāsia multa bāsiāre
vēsānō satis et super Catullō est,
quae nec pernumerāre cūriōsī
possint nec malā fascināre linguā.
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Da mi basia mille, deinde centum, dein mille altera, dein secunda centum, deinde usque altera mille, deinde centum........................
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