O Caelius, that Lesbia of ours

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by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c84 BCE - 54 BCE)

Translation © by Grant Hicks

Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa

Language: Latin

Our translations: ENG SPA

Chosen for Diff

Caeli, Lesbia nostra, Lesbia illa,
illa Lesbia, quam Catullus unam
plus quam se atque suos amavit omnes,
nunc in quadriviis et angiportis
glubit magnanimi Remi nepotes.

Available sung texts: (what is this?)

• C. Orff

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with The Poems of Gaius Valerius Catullus, London: G. Bell and Sons, 1912, page 74.

Text Authorship:

by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c84 BCE - 54 BCE), no title, appears in Carmina, no. 58 [author's text checked 2 times against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

by Carl Orff (1895 - 1982), "[IV]. Caeli, Lesbia nostra", 1940-43, published 1943 [ solo voice, chorus, and orchestra ], from cantata Catulli Carmina, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

ENG English (Grant Hicks) , copyright © 2026, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
ITA Italian (Italiano) (Mario Rapisardi) , no title, first published 1889
SPA Spanish (Español) (Saúl Botero Restrepo) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission

Research team for this page: Grant Hicks [Guest Editor] , Saúl Botero Restrepo

This text was added to the website: 2015-10-07
Line count: 5
Word count: 26

O Caelius, that Lesbia of ours

Language: English after the Latin

Chosen for Diff

O Caelius, that Lesbia of ours,
that Lesbia whom alone Catullus
loved more than himself and all his own, 
now at the crossroads and in the alleyways
peels the grandsons of great-souled Remus.

About the headline (FAQ)

Translations of titles:
"[IV]. Caeli, Lesbia nostra" = "[IV]. O Caelius, that Lesbia of ours"

Text Authorship:

Translation from Latin to English copyright © 2026 by Grant Hicks, (re)printed on this website with kind permission. To reprint and distribute this author's work for concert programs, CD booklets, etc., you may ask the copyright-holder(s) directly or ask us; we are authorized to grant permission on their behalf. Please provide the translator's name when contacting us.
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Based on:

a text in Latin by Gaius Valerius Catullus (c84 BCE - 54 BCE), no title, appears in Carmina, no. 58
- Go to the text page.

This text was added to the website: 2026-08-06
Line count: 5
Word count: 33