Ashim's home page

Catullus is most famous for his love poetry in honour of "Lesbia", a name designed to disguise the identity of the woman he adored, usually thought to have been Clodia Metelli, who was married. These poems demonstrate Catullus’s poetic range: the first poem shows the depth of his tender feelings while the second pretends an indifference which the passion and disjointedness of the lines show to be false. The rest of Catullus’s work can be very bawdy: satires on the sexual mores of his society that, though brilliant and savagely censorious, are shocking even today in their graphic language.
Poems by Catullus

"Vivamus mea Lesbia, atque amemus"

Lesbia
live with me
& love me so
we’ll laugh at all
the sour-faced strict-
ures of the wise.
This sun once set
will rise again,
when our sun sets
follows night &
an endless sleep.
Kiss me now a
thousand times &
now a hundred
more & then a
hundred & a
thousand more again
till with so many
hundred thousand
kisses you & I
shall both lose count
nor any can
from envy of
so much of kissing
put his finger
on the number
of sweet kisses
you of me &
I of you,
darling, have had.

"Miser Catulle, desinas ineptire"

Break off
Fallen Catullus
Time to cut losses,
Bright days shone once,
You followed a girl
here & there
loved as no other
perhaps
shall be loved,
then was the time
of love’s insouciance,
your lust as her will
matching.
Bright days shone
On both of you.
Now,
A woman is unwilling.
Follow suit
Weak as you are
No chasing of mirages
No fallen love,
A clean break
Hard against the past.
Not again, Lesbia.
No more.
Catullus is clear.
He won’t miss you.
He won’t crave it.
It is cold.
But you will whine.
You are ruined.
What will your life be?
Who will "visit" your room?
Who uncover that beauty?
Whom will you love?
Whose girl will you be?
Whom kiss?
Whose lips bite?
Enough. Break.
Catullus.
Against the past.

Source: http://www.penguin.com