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Septimius, holding his lover Acme in his lap, says, "My Acme, if I do not love
you to death, and am not prepared to love you constantly all the years in time
to come, as much and the most as one can who is desperately in love—
alone in Libya or in torrid India may I come face to face with a grey-eyed
lion." When he said this, Love, leftwards as before, with approbation rightwards
sneezed. Then Acme slightly bending back her head, and kissed the intoxicated
eyes of her sweet boy with her rose-red lips. "So," she said, "my life,
Septimillus, we shall serve this lord alone from now on, as greater, keener fire
burns the more amid my soft marrow." When she said this, Love, leftwards as
before, with approbation rightwards sneezed. Now made complete under good
auspices, with mutual minds they love and are loved. Poor little Septimius wants
Acme alone more than [the wealth of] the Syria or Britain: in
Septimius alone the faithful Acme takes delight and pleasure. Whoever has seen
happier people, whoever a more propitious Love?
Catullus. The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus. Leonard C. Smithers. London. Smithers. 1894.
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