Lesbia, you ask how many kisses of yours
As many as the grains of Libyan sand
that lie between hot Jupiter’s oracle,
at Ammon, in resin-producing Cyrene,
and old Battiades sacred tomb:
or as many as the stars, when night is still,
gazing down on secret human desires:
as many of your kisses kissed
are enough, and more, for mad Catullus,
as can’t be counted by spies
nor an evil tongue bewitch us.
Gaius Valerius Catullus (c. 84 BC – c. 54 BC) Italy (ancient Rome)
Translated by A.S. Kline
Source: Poetry in Translation
- Battiades - A patronymic for the poet Callimachus, a descendant of King Battus of Cyrene, a Spartan who built the Libyan city in 630 BC
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