Catullus Poem 5, An Adaptation Of An Ancient Roman Love Poem Poem by STANLEY PACION

I am here to repeat ancient wisdom:

What do we care what the joyless say?
They should get lost, all of them!

Once our tiny, brief light is pinched out,
There is no night, like that everlasting night,
When earth replaces heaven.

So let’s kiss, and let’s kiss again.
Let’s kiss a thousand times, and, then,
Let’s do it all over again, those kisses.

“How many? How many? How many? How many? ”
You ask.

Let’s not count our kisses

Make no mistake about it.
People out there are jealous.
I hear that some of them have the evil eye,
That once they learn the number of our kisses,
They would use black magic to hurt us.

No one should know how many.