XXX
Exegi monumentum aere perennius
regalique situ pyramidum altius,
quod non imber edax, non Aquilo inpotens
possit diruere aut innumerabilis
annorum series et fuga temporum. 5
Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
uitabit Libitinam; usque ego postera
crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium
scandet cum tacita uirgine pontifex.
Dicar, qua uiolens obstrepit Aufidus 10
et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
regnauit populorum, ex humili potens
princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica 15
lauro cinge uolens, Melpomene, comam.
ODE XXX.
ON HIS OWN WORKS.
I have completed a monument more lasting than brass, and more sublime than the regal elevation of pyramids, which neither the wasting shower, the unavailing north wind, nor an innumerable succession of years, and the flight of seasons, shall be able to demolish. I shall not wholly die; but a great part of me shall escape Libitina. I shall continualy be renewed in the praises of posterity, as long as the priest shall ascend the Capitol with the silent [vestal] virgin. Where the rapid Aufidus shall murmur, and where Daunus, poorly supplied with water, ruled over a rustic people, I, exalted from a low degree, shall be acknowledged as having originally adapted the Aeolic verse to Italian measures. Melpomene, assume that pride which your merits have acquired, and willingly crown my hair with the Delphic laurel.
Liber IV
I
Intermissa, Venus, diu
rursus bella moues? Parce precor, precor.
Non sum qualis eram bonae
sub regno Cinarae. Desine, dulcium
mater saeua Cupidinum, 5
circa lustra decem flectere mollibus
iam durum imperiis: abi,
quo blandae iuuenum te reuocant preces.
Tempestiuius in domum
Pauli purpureis ales oloribus 10
comissabere Maximi,
si torrere iecur quaeris idoneum;
namque et nobilis et decens
et pro sollicitis non tacitus reis
et centum puer artium 15
late signa feret militiae tuae,
et, quandoque potentior
largi muneribus riserit aemuli,
Albanos prope te lacus
ponet marmoream sub trabe citrea. 20
Illic plurima naribus
duces tura, lyraque et Berecyntia
delectabere tibia
mixtis carminibus non sine fistula;
illic bis pueri die
numen cum teneris uirginibus tuum 25
laudantes pede candido
in morem Salium ter quatient humum.
Me nec femina nec puer
iam nec spes animi credula mutui 30
nec certare iuuat mero
nec uincire nouis tempora floribus.
Sed cur heu, Ligurine, cur
manat rara meas lacrima per genas?
Cur facunda parum decoro 35
inter uerba cadit lingua silentio?
Nocturnis ego somniis
iam captum teneo, iam uolucrem sequor
te per gramina Martii
campi, te per aquas, dure, uolubilis. 40
ODE I.
TO VENUS.
After a long cessation, O Venus, again are you stirring up tumults? Spare me, I beseech you, I beseech you. I am not the man I was under the dominion of good-natured Cynara. Forbear, O cruel mother of soft desires, to bend one bordering upon fifty, now too hardened for soft commands: go, whither the soothing prayers of youths, invoke you. More seasonably may you revel in the house of Paulus Maximus, flying thither with your splendid swans, if you seek to inflame a suitable breast. For he is both noble and comely, and by no means silent in the cause of distressed defendants, and a youth of a hundred accomplishments; he shall bear the ensigns of your warfare far and wide; and whenever, more prevailing than the ample presents of a rival, he shall laugh [at his expense], he shall erect thee in marble under a citron dome near the Alban lake. There you shall smell abundant frankincense, and shall be charmed with the mixed music of the lyre and Berecynthian pipe, not without the flageolet. There the youths, together with the tender maidens, twice a day celebrating your divinity, shall, Salian-like, with white foot thrice shake the ground. As for me, neither woman, nor youth, nor the fond hopes of mutual inclination, nor to contend in wine, nor to bind my temples with fresh flowers, delight me [any longer]. But why; ah! why, Ligurinus, does the tear every now and then trickle down my cheeks? Why does my fluent tongue falter between my words with an unseemly silence? Thee in my dreams by night I clasp, caught [in my arms]; thee flying across the turf of the Campus Martius; thee I pursue, O cruel one, through the rolling waters.
II
Pindarum quisquis studet aemulari,
Iulle, ceratis ope Daedalea
nititur pinnis, uitreo daturus
nomina ponto.
Monte decurrens uelut amnis, imbres 5
quem super notas aluere ripas,
feruet inmensusque ruit profundo
Pindarus ore,
laurea donandus Apollinari,
seu per audacis noua dithyrambos 10
uerba deuoluit numerisque fertur
lege solutis,
seu deos regesque canit, deorum
sanguinem, per quos cecidere iusta
morte Centauri, cecidit tremendae 15
flamma Chimaerae,
siue quos Elea domum reducit
palma caelestis pugilemue equomue
dicit et centum potiore signis
munere donat, 20
flebili sponsae iuuenemue raptum
plorat et uiris animumque moresque
aureos educit in astra nigroque
inuidet Orco.
Multa Dircaeum leuat aura cycnum, 25
tendit, Antoni, quotiens in altos
nubium tractus; ego apis Matinae
more modoque
grata carpentis thyma per laborem
plurimum circa nemus uuidique 30
Tiburis ripas operosa paruus
carmina fingo.
Concines maiore poeta plectro
Caesarem, quandoque trahet ferocis
per sacrum cliuum merita decorus 35
fronde Sygambros;
quo nihil maius meliusue terris
fata donauere bonique diui
nec dabunt, quamuis redeant in aurum
tempora priscum. 40
Concines laetosque dies et urbis
publicum ludum super impetrato
fortis Augusti reditu forumque
litibus orbum.
Tum meae, si quid loquar audiendum, 45
uocis accedet bona pars, et: ‘O sol
pulcher, o laudande!’ canam recepto
Caesare felix;
teque, dum procedis, io Triumphe!
non semel dicemus, io Triumphe! 50
ciuitas omnis, dabimusque diuis
tura benignis.
Te decem tauri totidemque uaccae,
me tener soluet uitulus, relicta
matre qui largis iuuenescit herbis 55
in mea uota,
fronte curuatos imitatus ignis
tertius lunae referentis ortum,
qua notam duxit niueus uideri,
cetera fuluus. 60
ODE II.
TO ANTONIUS IULUS.
Whoever endeavors, O Iulus, to rival Pindar, makes an effort on wings fastened with wax by art Daedalean, about to communicate his name to the glassy sea. Like a river pouring down from a mountain, which sudden rains have increased beyond its accustomed banks, such the deep-mouthed Pindar rages and rushes on immeasurable, sure to merit Apollo’s laurel, whether he rolls down new-formed phrases through the daring dithyrambic, and is borne on in numbers exempt from rule: whether he sings the g
ods, and kings, the offspring of the gods, by whom the Centaurs perished with a just destruction, [by whom] was quenched the flame of the dreadful Chimaera; or celebrates those whom the palm, [in the Olympic games] at Elis, brings home exalted to the skies, wrestler or steed, and presents them with a gift preferable to a hundred statues: or deplores some youth, snatched [by death] from his mournful bride — he elevates both his strength, and courage, and golden morals to the stars, and rescues him from the murky grave. A copious gale elevates the Dircean swan, O Antonius, as often as he soars into the lofty regions of the clouds: but I, after the custom and manner of the Macinian bee, that laboriously gathers the grateful thyme, I, a diminutive creature, compose elaborate verses about the grove and the banks of the watery Tiber. You, a poet of sublimer style, shall sing of Caesar, whenever, graceful in his well-earned laurel, he shall drag the fierce Sygambri along the sacred hill; Caesar, than whom nothing greater or better the fates and indulgent gods ever bestowed on the earth, nor will bestow, though the times should return to their primitive gold. You shall sing both the festal days, and the public rejoicings on account of the prayed-for return of the brave Augustus, and the forum free from law-suits. Then (if I can offer any thing worth hearing) a considerable portion of my voice shall join [the general acclamation], and I will sing, happy at the reception of Caesar, “O glorious day, O worthy thou to be celebrated.” And while [the procession] moves along, shouts of triumph we will repeat, shouts of triumph the whole city [will raise], and we will offer frankincense to the indulgent gods. Thee ten bulls and as many heifers shall absolve; me, a tender steerling, that, having left his dam, thrives in spacious pastures for the discharge of my vows, resembling [by the horns on] his forehead the curved light of the moon, when she appears of three days old, in which part he has a mark of a snowy aspect, being of a dun color over the rest of his body.
III
Quem tu, Melpomene, semel
nascentem placido lumine uideris,
illum non labor Isthmius
clarabit pugilem, non equus impiger
curru ducet Achaico 5
uictorem, neque res bellica Deliis
ornatum foliis ducem,
quod regum tumidas contuderit minas,
ostendet Capitolio;
sed quae Tibur aquae fertile praefluunt 10
et spissae nemorum comae
fingent Aeolio carmine nobilem.
Romae principis urbium
dignatur suboles inter amabilis
uatum ponere me choros, 15
et iam dente minus mordeor inuido.
O testudinis aureae
dulcem quae strepitum, Pieri, temperas,
o mutis quoque piscibus
donatura cycni, si libeat, sonum, 20
totum muneris hoc tui est,
quod monstror digito praetereuntium
Romanae fidicen lyrae;
quod spiro et placeo, si placeo, tuum est.
ODE III.
TO MELPOMENE.
Him, O Melpomene, upon whom at his birth thou hast once looked with favoring eye, the Isthmian contest shall not render eminent as a wrestler; the swift horse shall not draw him triumphant in a Grecian car; nor shall warlike achievement show him in the Capitol, a general adorned with the Delian laurel, on account of his having quashed the proud threats of kings: but such waters as flow through the fertile Tiber, and the dense leaves of the groves, shall make him distinguished by the Aeolian verse. The sons of Rome, the queen of cities, deign to rank me among the amiable band of poets; and now I am less carped at by the tooth of envy. O muse, regulating the harmony of the gilded shell! O thou, who canst immediately bestow, if thou please, the notes of the swan upon the mute fish! It is entirely by thy gift that I am marked out, as the stringer of the Roman lyre, by the fingers of passengers; that I breathe, and give pleasure (if I give pleasure), is yours.
IV
Qualem ministrum fulminis alitem,
cui rex deorum regnum in auis uagas
permisit expertus fidelem
Iuppiter in Ganymede flauo,
olim iuuentas et patrius uigor 5
nido laborum protulit inscium
uernique iam nimbis remotis
insolitos docuere nisus
uenti pauentem, mox in ouilia
demisit hostem uiuidus impetus, 10
nunc in reluctantis dracones
egit amor dapis atque pugnae;
qualemue laetis caprea pascuis
intenta fuluae matris ab ubere
iam lacte depulsum leonem 15
dente nouo peritura uidit:
uidere Raeti bella sub Alpibus
Drusum gerentem; Vindelici — quibus
mos unde deductus per omne
tempus Amazonia securi 20
dextras obarmet, quaerere distuli,
nec scire fas est omnia — sed diu
lateque uictrices cateruae
consiliis iuuenis reuictae
sensere, quid mens rite, quid indoles 25
nutrita faustis sub penetralibus
posset, quid Augusti paternus
in pueros animus Nerones.
Fortes creantur fortibus et bonis;
est in iuuencis, est in equis patrum 30
uirtus neque inbellem feroces
progenerant aquilae columbam;
doctrina sed uim promouet insitam
rectique cultus pectora roborant;
utcumque defecere mores, 35
indecorant bene nata culpae.
Quid debeas, o Roma, Neronibus,
testis Metaurum flumen et Hasdrubal
deuictus et pulcher fugatis
ille dies Latio tenebris, 40
qui primus alma risit adorea,
dirus per urbes Afer ut Italas
ceu flamma per taedas uel Eurus
per Siculas equitauit undas.
Post hoc secundis usque laboribus 45
Romana pubes creuit et impio
uastata Poenorum tumultu
fana deos habuere rectos;
dixitque tandem perfidus Hannibal:
‘Cerui, luporum praeda rapacium, 50
sectamur ultro, quos opimus
fallere et effugere est triumphus.
Gens, quae cremato fortis ab Ilio
iactata Tuscis aequoribus sacra
natosque maturosque patres 55
pertulit Ausonias ad urbes,
duris ut ilex tonsa bipennibus
nigrae feraci frondis in Algido,
per damna, per caedes ab ipso
ducit opes animumque ferro. 60
Non hydra secto corpore firmior
uinci dolentem creuit in Herculem,
monstrumue submisere Colchi
maius Echioniaeue Thebae.
Merses profundo, pulchrior euenit; 65
luctere, multa proruet integrum
cum laude uictorem geretque
proelia coniugibus loquenda.
Carthagini iam non ego nuntios
mittam superbos; occidit, occidit 70
spes omnis et fortuna nostri
nominis Hasdrubale interempto.
Nil Claudiae non perficient manus,
quas et benigno numine Iuppiter
defendit et curae sagaces 75
expediunt per acuta belli’.
ODE IV
THE PRAISE OF DRUSUS.
Like as the winged minister of thunder (to whom Jupiter, the sovereign of the gods, has assigned the dominion over the fleeting birds, having experienced his fidelity in the affair of the beauteous Ganymede), early youth and hereditary vigor save impelled from his nest unknowing of toil; and the vernal winds, the showers being now dispelled, taught him, still timorous, unwonted enterprises: in a little while a violent impulse dispatched him, as an enemy against the sheepfolds, now an appetite for food and fight has impelled him upon the reluctant serpents; — or as a she-goat, intent on rich pastures, has beheld a young lion but just weaned from the udder of his tawny dam, ready to be devoured by his newly-grown tooth: such
did the Rhaeti and the Vindelici behold Drusus carrying on the war under the Alps; whence this people derived the custom, which has always prevailed among them, of arming their right hands with the Amazonian ax, I have purposely omitted to inquire: (neither is it possible to discover everything.) But those troops, which had been for a long while and extensively victorious, being subdued by the conduct of a youth, perceived what a disposition, what a genius rightly educated under an auspicious roof, what the fatherly affection of Augustus toward the young Neros, could effect. The brave are generated by the brave and good; there is in steers, there is in horses, the virtue of their sires; nor do the courageous eagles procreate the unwarlike dove. But learning improves the innate force, and good discipline confirms the mind: whenever morals are deficient, vices disgrace what is naturally good. What thou owest, O Rome, to the Neros, the river Metaurus is a witness, and the defeated Asdrubal, and that day illustrious by the dispelling of darkness from Italy, and which first smiled with benignant victory; when the terrible African rode through the Latian cities, like a fire through the pitchy pines, or the east wind through the Sicilian waves. After this the Roman youth increased continually in successful exploits, and temples, laid waste by the impious outrage of the Carthaginians, had the [statues of] their gods set up again. And at length the perfidious Hannibal said; “We, like stags, the prey of rapacious wolves, follow of our own accord those, whom to deceive and escape is a signal triumph. That nation, which, tossed in the Etrurian waves, bravely transported their gods, and sons, and aged fathers, from the burned Troy to the Italian cities, like an oak lopped by sturdy axes in Algidum abounding in dusky leaves, through losses and through wounds derives strength and spirit from the very steel. The Hydra did not with more vigor grow upon Hercules grieving to be overcome, nor did the Colchians, or the Echionian Thebes, produce a greater prodigy. Should you sink it in the depth, it will come out more beautiful: should you contend with it, with great glory will it overthrow the conqueror unhurt before, and will fight battles to be the talk of wives. No longer can I send boasting messengers to Carthage: all the hope and success of my name is fallen, is fallen by the death of Asdrubal. There is nothing, but what the Claudian hands will perform; which both Jupiter defends with his propitious divinity, and sagacious precaution conducts through the sharp trials of war.”
Complete Works of Horace (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 87