To Lesbia

Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,

and let us judege all the rumours of old men

to be worth just one penny!

The suns are able to fall and rise:

When that brief light has fallen for us,

we must sleep a never ending night.

Give me a thousand kisses, then another hundred,

then another thousand, then a second hundered,

then yet another thousand more, then another hundered.

Then, when we have made many thousands,

we will mix them all up so that we don't know, 

and so that no one can be jealous of us when he finds out

how many kisses we have shared.

CATULLUS (c. 84-c. 54 BC)

(Trans. Ben Jonson 1572-1637)