X
O crudelis adhuc et Veneris muneribus potens,
insperata tuae cum ueniet pluma superbiae
et, quae nunc umeris inuolitant, deciderint comae,
nunc et qui color est puniceae flore prior rosae
mutatus Ligurinum in faciem uerterit hispidam, 5
dices, heu, quotiens te speculo uideris alterum:
‘Quae mens est hodie, cur eadem non puero fuit,
uel cur his animis incolumes non redeunt genae?’
ODE X.
TO LIGURINUS.
O cruel still, and potent in the endowments of beauty, when an unexpected plume shall come upon your vanity, and those locks, which now wanton on your shoulders, shall fall off, and that color, which is now preferable to the blossom of the damask rose, changed, O Ligurinus, shall turn into a wrinkled face; [then] will you say (as often as you see yourself, [quite] another person in the looking glass), Alas! why was not my present inclination the same, when I was young? Or why do not my cheeks return, unimpaired, to these my present sentiments?
XI
Est mihi nonum superantis annum
plenus Albani cadus, est in horto,
Phylli, nectendis apium coronis,
est hederae uis
multa, qua crinis religata fulges, 5
ridet argento domus, ara castis
uincta uerbenis auet immolato
spargier agno;
cuncta festinat manus, huc et illuc
cursitant mixtae pueris puellae, 10
sordidum flammae trepidant rotantes
uertice fumum.
Vt tamen noris quibus aduoceris
gaudiis, Idus tibi sunt agendae,
qui dies mensem Veneris marinae 15
findit Aprilem,
iure sollemnis mihi sanctiorque
paene natali proprio, quod ex hac
luce Maecenas meus affluentis
ordinat annos. 20
Telephum, quem tu petis, occupauit
non tuae sortis iuuenem puella
diues et lasciua tenetque grata
compede uinctum.
Terret ambustus Phaethon auaras 25
spes et exemplum graue praebet ales
Pegasus terrenum equitem grauatus
Bellerophontem,
semper ut te digna sequare et ultra
quam licet sperare nefas putando 30
disparem uites. Age iam, meorum
finis amorum
(non enim posthac alia calebo
femina), condisce modos, amanda
uoce quos reddas; minuentur atrae 35
carmine curae.
ODE XI.
TO PHYLLIS.
Phyllis, I have a cask full of Abanian wine, upward of nine years old; I have parsley in my garden, for the weaving of chaplets, I have a store of ivy, with which, when you have bound your hair, you look so gay: the house shines cheerfully With plate: the altar, bound with chaste vervain, longs to be sprinkled [with the blood] of a sacrificed lamb: all hands are busy: girls mingled with boys fly about from place to place: the flames quiver, rolling on their summit the sooty smoke. But yet, that you may know to what joys you are invited, the Ides are to be celebrated by you, the day which divides April, the month of sea-born Venus; [a day,] with reason to be solemnized by me, and almost more sacred to me than that of my own birth; since from this day my dear Maecenas reckons his flowing years. A rich and buxom girl hath possessed herself of Telephus, a youth above your rank; and she holds him fast by an agreeable fetter. Consumed Phaeton strikes terror into ambitious hopes, and the winged Pegasus, not stomaching the earth-born rider Bellerophon, affords a terrible example, that you ought always to pursue things that are suitable to you, and that you should avoid a disproportioned match, by thinking it a crime to entertain a hope beyond what is allowable. Come then, thou last of my loves (for hereafter I shall burn for no other woman), learn with me such measures, as thou mayest recite with thy lovely voice: our gloomy cares shall be mitigated with an ode.
XII
Iam ueris comites, quae mare temperant,
impellunt animae lintea Thraciae,
iam nec prata rigent, nec fluuii strepunt
hiberna niue turgidi.
Nidum ponit, Ityn flebiliter gemens, 5
infelix auis et Cecropiae domus
aeternum obprobrium, quod male barbaras
regum est ulta libidines.
Dicunt in tenero gramine pinguium
custodes ouium carmina fistula 10
delectantque deum, cui pecus et nigri
colles Arcadiae placent.
Adduxere sitim tempora, Vergili;
sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum
si gestis, iuuenum nobilium cliens, 15
nardo uina merebere.
Nardi paruus onyx eliciet cadum,
qui nunc Sulpiciis accubat horreis,
spes donare nouas largus amaraque
curarum eluere efficax. 20
Ad quae si properas gaudia, cum tua
uelox merce ueni; non ego te meis
inmunem meditor tinguere poculis,
plena diues ut in domo.
Verum pone moras et studium lucri, 25
nigrorumque memor, dum licet, ignium
misce stultitiam consiliis breuem:
dulce est desipere in loco.
ODE XII.
TO VIRGIL.
The Thracian breezes, attendants on the spring, which moderate the deep, now fill the sails; now neither are the meadows stiff [with frost], nor roar the rivers swollen with winter’s snow. The unhappy bird, that piteotisly bemoans Itys, and is the eternal disgrace of the house of Cecrops (because she wickedly revenged the brutal lusts of kings), now builds her nest. The keepers of the sheep play tunes upon the pipe amid the tendar herbage, and delight that god, whom flocks and the shady hills of Arcadia delight. The time of year, O Virgil, has brought on a drought: but if you desire to quaff wine from the Calenian press, you, that are a constant companion of young noblemen, must earn your liquor by [bringing some] spikenard: a small box of spikenard shall draw out a cask, which now lies in the Sulpician store-house, bounteous in the indulgence of fresh hopes and efficacious in washing away the bitterness of cares. To which joys if you hasten, come instantly with your merchandize: I do not intend to dip you in my cups scot-free, like a man of wealth, in a house abounding with plenty. But lay aside delay, and the desire of gain; and, mindful of the gloomy [funeral] flames, intermix, while you may, your grave studies with a little light gayety: it is delightful to give a loose on a proper occasion.
XIII
Audiuere, Lyce, di mea uota, di
audiuere, Lyce: fis anus, et tamen
uis formosa uideri
ludisque et bibis impudens
et cantu tremulo pota Cupidinem 5
lentum sollicitas. Ille uirentis et
doctae psallere Chiae
pulchris excubat in genis.
Importunus enim transuolat aridas
quercus et refugit te quia luridi 10
dentes, te quia rugae
turpant et capitis niues.
Nec Coae referunt iam tibi purpurae
nec cari lapides tempora, quae semel
notis condita fastis 15
inclusit uolucris dies.
Quo fugit Venus, heu, quoue color, decens
quo motus? Quid habes illius, illius,
quae spirabat amores,
quae me surpuerat mihi, 20
felix post Cinaram notaque et artium
gratarum facies? Sed Cinarae breuis
annos fata dederunt,
seruatura diu parem
cornicis uetulae temporibus Lycen, 25
possent ut iuuenes uisere feruidi
multo non sine risu
dilapsam in cineres facem.
ODE XIII.
TO LYCE.
The gods have heard my prayers, O Lyce; Lyce, the gods have heard my prayers, you are become an old woman, and yet you would fain seem a beauty; and you
wanton and drink in an audacious manner; and when drunk, solicit tardy Cupid, with a quivering voice. He basks in the charming cheeks of the blooming Chia, who is a proficient on the lyre. The teasing urchin flies over blasted oaks, and starts back at the sight of you, because foul teeth, because wrinkles and snowy hair render you odious. Now neither Coan purples nor sparkling jewels restore those years, which winged time has inserted in the public annals. Whither is your beauty gone? Alas! or whither your bloom? Whither your graceful deportment? What have you [remaining] of her, of her, who breathed loves, and ravished me from myself? Happy next to Cynara, and distinguished for an aspect of graceful ways: but the fates granted a few years only to Cynara, intending to preserve for a long time Lyce, to rival in years the aged raven: that the fervid young fellows might see, not without excessive laughter, that torch, [which once so brightly scorched,] reduced to ashes.
XIV
Quae cura patrum quaeue Quiritium
plenis honorum muneribus tuas,
Auguste, uirtutes in aeuum
per titulos memoresque fastus
aeternet, o qua sol habitabilis 5
inlustrat oras maxime principum?
quem legis expertes Latinae
Vindelici didicere nuper
quid Marte posses. Milite nam tuo
Drusus Genaunos, inplacidum genus, 10
Breunosque uelocis et arces
Alpibus impositas tremendis
deiecit acer plus uice simplici.
Maior Neronum mox graue proelium
commisit immanisque Raetos 15
auspiciis pepulit secundis,
spectandus in certamine Martio,
deuota morti pectora liberae
quanti fatigaret ruinis,
indomitas prope qualis undas 20
exercet Auster Pleiadum choro
scindente nubes, impiger hostium
uexare turmas et frementem
mittere equum medios per ignis.
Sic tauriformis uoluitur Aufidus, 25
qui regna Dauni praefluit Apuli,
cum saeuit horrendamque cultis
diluuiem meditatur agris,
ut barbarorum Claudius agmina
ferrata uasto diruit impetu 30
primosque et extremos metendo
strauit humum sine clade uictor,
te copias, te consilium et tuos
praebente diuos. Nam tibi quo die
portus Alexandrea supplex 35
et uacuam patefecit aulam,
Fortuna lustro prospera tertio
belli secundos reddidit exitus
laudemque et optatum peractis
imperiis decus arrogauit. 40
Te Cantaber non ante domabilis
Medusque et Indus, te profugus Scythes
miratur, o tutela praesens
Italiae dominaeque Romae;
te fontium qui celat origines 45
Nilusque et Hister, te rapidus Tigris,
te beluosus qui remotis
obstrepit Oceanus Britannis,
te non pauentis funera Galliae
duraeque tellus audit Hiberiae, 50
te caede gaudentes Sygambri
compositis uenerantur armis.
ODE XIV.
TO AUGUSTUS.
What zeal of the senators, or what of the Roman people, by decreeing the most ample honors, can eternize your virtues, O Augustus, by monumental inscriptions and lasting records? O thou, wherever the sun illuminates the habitable regions, greatest of princes, whom the Vindelici, that never experienced the Roman sway, have lately learned how powerful thou art in war! For Drusus, by means of your soldiery, has more than once bravely overthrown the Genauni, an implacable race, and the rapid Brenci, and the citadels situated on the tremendous Alps. The elder of the Neros soon after fought a terrible battle, and, under your propitious auspices, smote the ferocious Rhoeti: how worthy of admiration in the field of battle, [to see] with what destruction he oppressed the brave, hearts devoted to voluntary death: just as the south wind harasses the untameable waves, when the dance of the Pleiades cleaves the clouds; [so is he] strenuous to annoy the troops of the enemy, and to drive his eager steed through the midst of flames. Thus the bull-formed Aufidus, who washes the dominions of the Apulian Daunus, rolls along, when he rages and meditates an horrible deluge to the cultivated lands; when Claudius overthrew with impetuous might, the iron ranks of the barbarians, and by mowing down both front and rear strewed the ground, victorious without any loss; through you supplying them with troops, you with councils, and your own guardian powers. For on that day, when the suppliant Alexandria opened her ports, and deserted court, fortune, propitious to you in the third lustrum, has put a happy period to the war, and has ascribed praise and wished-for honor to the victories already obtained. O thou dread guardian of Italy and imperial Rome, thee the Spaniard, till now unconquered, and the Mede, and the Indian, thee the vagrant Scythian admires; thee both the Nile, who conceals his fountain heads, and the Danube; thee the rapid Tigris; thee the monster-bearing ocean, that roars against the remote Britons; thee the region of Gaul fearless of death, and that of hardy Iberia obeys; thee the Sicambrians, who delight in slaughter, laying aside their arms, revere.
XV
Phoebus uolentem proelia me loqui
uictas et urbes increpuit lyra,
ne parua Tyrrhenum per aequor
uela darem. Tua, Caesar, aetas
fruges et agris rettulit uberes 5
et signa nostro restituit Ioui
derepta Parthorum superbis
postibus et uacuum duellis
Ianum Quirini clausit et ordinem
rectum euaganti frena licentiae 10
iniecit emouitque culpas
et ueteres reuocauit artes
per quas Latinum nomen et Italae
creuere uires famaque et imperi
porrecta maiestas ad ortus 15
solis ab Hesperio cubili.
Custode rerum Caesare non furor
ciuilis aut uis exiget otium,
non ira, quae procudit enses
et miseras inimicat urbes. 20
Non qui profundum Danuuium bibunt
edicta rumpent Iulia, non Getae,
non Seres infidique Persae,
non Tanain prope flumen orti.
Nosque et profestis lucibus et sacris 25
inter iocosi munera Liberi
cum prole matronisque nostris
rite deos prius adprecati,
uirtute functos more patrum duces
Lydis remixto carmine tibiis 30
Troiamque et Anchisen et almae
progeniem Veneris canemus.
ODE XV.
TO AUGUSTUS, ON THE RESTORATION OF PEACE.
Phoebus chid me, when I was meditating to sing of battles And conquered cities on the lyre: that I might not set my little sails along the Tyrrhenian Sea. Your age, O Caesar, has both restored plenteous crops to the fields, and has brought back to our Jupiter the standards torn from the proud pillars of the Parthians; and has shut up [the temple] of Janus [founded by] Romulus, now free from war; and has imposed a due discipline upon headstrong licentiousness, and has extirpated crimes, and recalled the ancient arts; by which the Latin name and strength of Italy have increased, and the fame and majesty of the empire is extended from the sun’s western bed to the east. While Caesar is guardian of affairs, neither civil rage nor violence shall disturb tranquillity; nor hatred which forges swords, and sets at variance unhappy states. Not those, who drink of the deep Danube, shall now break the Julian edicts: not the Getae, not the Seres, nor the perfidious Persians, nor those born upon the river Tanais. And let us, both on common and festal days, amid the gifts of joyous Bacchus, together with our wives and families, having first duly invoked the gods, celebrate, after the manner of our ancestors, with songs accompanied with Lydian pipes, our late valiant commanders: and Troy, and Anchises, and the offspring of benign Venus.
Complete Works of Horace (Illustrated) (Delphi Ancient Classics) Page 89