To supplement Gritchka's excellent write-up, here is the original Latin of Catullus 51.

Ille mi par esse deo uidetur,
ille, si fas est, superare diuos,
qui sedens aduersus identidem te
spectat et audit

dulce ridentem, misero quod omnis
eripit sensus mihi: nam simul te,
Lesbia, aspexi, nihil est super mi
*missing line1*

lingua sed torpet, tenuis sub artus
flamma demanat, sonitu suopte
tintinant aures, gemina teguntur
lumina nocte.

otium, Catulle, tibi molestum est:
otio exsultas nimiumque gestis:
otium et reges prius et beatas
perdidit urbes.2


  1. Since we know the content of the missing line, various attempts have been made to "restore" it. The best effort is vocis in ore. Although this is plausible, we will never know the true text.
  2. Not all scholars accept that the last verse is part of this poem. Although it is in sapphic metre, like the rest of the text, its meaning strays from the original Greek text. It may be a fragment of an otherwise lost poem.

Source: Oxford Classical Texts