Carmen 5
by Gaius Valerius Catullus
Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love,
And let us judge the rumors of old men
To be the worth of 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 hundred,
Then yet another thousand more, then another hundred.
Then, when we have made many thousands,
We will mix them up so that we don’t know,
And so that no one can be jealous of us when they find out
How many kisses we have shared.
A Thousand Kisses Deep
by Leonard Cohen
The ponies run,
the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while,
and then it’s done
Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat.
You live your life as if it’s real,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.
I’m turning tricks,
I’m getting fixed,
I’m back on Boogie Street.
You lose your grip,
and then you slip
Into the Masterpiece.
And maybe I had miles to drive,
And promises to keep:
You ditch it all to stay alive,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.
And sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.
Confined to sex, we pressed against
The limits of the sea:
I saw there were no oceans left
For scavengers like me.
I made it to the forward deck.
I blessed our remnant fleet –
And then consented to be wrecked,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.
I’m turning tricks,
I’m getting fixed,
I’m back on Boogie Street.
I guess they won’t exchange the gifts
That you were meant to keep.
And quiet is the thought of you,
The file on you complete,
Except what we forgot to do,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.
And sometimes when the night is slow,
The wretched and the meek,
We gather up our hearts and go,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.
The ponies run, the girls are young,
The odds are there to beat.
You win a while, and then it’s done
– Your little winning streak.
And summoned now to deal
With your invincible defeat.
You live your life as if it’s real,
A Thousand Kisses Deep.
Fourteen Lines 