Catullus 85

Catullus 85 is a poem by the Roman poet Catullus for his mistress Lesbia.

"Odi et amo. quare id faciam fortasse requiris?

nescio, sed fieri sentio et excrucior.'"

I hate and I love. Why I do this, perhaps you ask?

I do not know, but I feel it happening and I am being torn apart.

Its declaration of conflicting feelings "I hate and I love" (in Latin, Odi et amo) is renowned for its force and brevity.

The meter of the poem is the elegiac couplet.

Musical settings

• "Odi et amo" No. 19 of "Moralia" by composer Jacobus Gallus
• "Odi et amo" part of Catulli Carmina by composer Carl Orff
• Odi et amo by composer Jóhann Jóhannsson off the album Englabörn.