5

Catullus exults in his love for Lesbia. Even though he wants to keep a careful record of his relationship with Lesbia, he also wants to maintain a sense of secrecy, keeping Lesbia for himself and avoiding the jealous glances of the public. 

Meter: Hendecasyllabics.

1: Vīvāmus…amēmus: “let us live (and) let us love”; hortatory subjunctives (AG §439).

2: senum sevēriōrum: “of rather strict old men”; genitive plural; sevēriōrum is a comparative (AG §291.a) form of the adjective severus.

3: ūnius…assis: “worth one coin”; genitive of value (AG §416); an as was a coin of little value, like an American penny. aestimēmus: “let us value”; hortatory subjunctive (AG §439) (Garrison notes a bookkeeping theme and connects this verb with lines 10-11).

4: Sōlēs: “suns”; subject (nominative plural) of possunt. nōbīs: dative of reference after occidit and dative of agent (AG §375) after the passive periphrastic (AG §500.2) in line 6.

5: cum semel: “when once and for all.” occidit brevis lūx: “the brief day has set” (literally “the brief light”).

6: nox est…dormienda: “(one perpetual) night must be slept”; passive periphrastic (AG §500.2).

7: mī: = mihi.

9: usque: “continually.”

10: fēcerīmus: “we will have made”; future perfect.

11: nē sciāmus: “so that we do not know”; negative purpose clause (AG §530).

12: nē quis…possit: another negative purpose clause (AG §530); quis is the abbreviated form of the indefinite pronoun (AG §310.b) aliquis that often occurs after ne. invidēre: “to look with envy” or “to give the evil eye.” 

13: cum…sciat: “when he knows” or “since he knows”; cum + subjunctive is causal clause (AG §540.b) that introduces an indirect statement (AG §583). tantum… esse bāsiōrum: “there are so great a number of kisses”; bāsiōrum is a partitive genitive (AG §346) after tantum.