To Lesbia

Ancient Rome's most passionate poet speaks directly to his lover in verses that burn with desire, jealousy, and grief. Catullus addresses his beloved Lesbia (likely a pseudonym) in poems that range from tender declarations to vicious satire when betrayal turns love to bitter hatred. The collection's centerpiece is "Vivamus, mea Lesbia," a defiant argument for pleasure and passion against the moralizing of stern old men: the sun sets and rises, but for us, once our brief light dies, there is one perpetual night to sleep. These poems pulse with physical longing and emotional rawness, written in precise, economical Latin that somehow feels both ancient and startlingly modern. Catullus gives us intimacy itself - the joy, the obsession, the cruelty of loving someone who does not love back. For anyone who has loved and lost, these poems offer the uncanny sensation of being understood across two thousand years.