catullus carmen 5

[DiscipulaeLacrimae]

I'm back with more Catullus! The last 3 lines have been giving me some trouble.

... conturbabimus illa, ne sciamus,
aut ne quis malus invidere possit,
cum tantum sciat esse basiorum.

My old notes have this as:

... we will mix this up, let us not know,
but so that not anyone would be able to see,
when he knows that there are so many more.

It was obviously erroneous, so I revised it to:

... we will confuse these [kisses], lest we know,
lest not anyone evil would be able to look with envy,
when they know that there are so many of our kisses.

I used Perseus Digital Library's smooth translation to aid me in making mine, but if anything else is still wrong, please let me know.

What I'm worried about is the partitive genitive + tantum--I don't know if I'm phrasing these words together correctly because tantum is an adjective and I'm using it as a noun.

 

[cinefactus]

you don't need the not after lest
I would just say be jealous
Latin uses a partitive genitive, but English would just say how many kisses
sciat is singular and goes with malus. I think you should use he rather than they.

 

[Pacifica]

I would just say be jealous

Actually, in this context it's probably a bit more than that: to cast the evil eye (through envy).

how many kisses

You mean "so many kisses".

sciat is singular and goes with malus. I think you should use he rather than they.

"He" would be more literal, but "they" to refer to "anyone" is natural in English so I would accept that translation.

tantum is an adjective and I'm using it as a noun

Tantum is originally an adjective (the neuter form of tantus/tanta/tantum) but it's also frequently used as a noun and as an adverb. It's used as a noun here. Tantum basiorum is literally "so much (= such a great amount) of kisses". As Cinefactus meant to say, it can be translated as "so many kisses". "So many of our kisses" also works well, I think.

 

[DiscipulaeLacrimae]

I see! Thank you both for you help :]