Summovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim
Sic erit. Quondam cithara tacentem
Suscitat Musam, neque semper arcum

Tendit Apollo.

20

Rebus angustis animosus atque
Fortis appare; sapienter idem
Contrahes vento nimium secundo

Turgida vela.

Od. ii. 14.

Eheu! fugaces, Postume, Postume,
Labuntur anni; nec pietas moram
Rugis et instanti senectæ

Afferet, indomitæque morti.

If hard thy lot, ’twill sometime mend :
Not Phoebus self unchang'd remains,
But ceases now his bow to bend,
Now wakes the slumb’ring Muses' strains.

20

Boldly to adverse fate oppose
A manly courage; when the gale
With too propitious favour blows,
Contract in time thy pendent sail.

Od. ii. 14.

Alas, my Posthumus, alas !
The fleeting years too quickly pass,

And none may stay their course ;
Nor purest life may respite seek
From wrinkled age, and furrow'd cheek,

And death's resistless force.

5 5

Non, si trecenis, quotquot eunt dies,
Amice, places illacrimabilem
Plutona tauris ; qui ter amplum

Geryonen Tityonque tristi

10

Compescit unda, scilicet omnibus,
Quicunque terræ munere vescimur,
Enaviganda, sive reges

Sive inopes erimus coloni.

Frustra cruento Marte carebimus,
Fractisque rauci fluctibus Adriæ;
Frustra

per auctumnos nocentem
Corporibus metuemus Austrum:

15

Three hundred bullocks, daily slain,
Would seek to mitigate in vain

Th’inexorable King;
Whose drear dominion Tityus holds,
And Geryon's giant bulk enfolds

Within the wat’ry ring

10

15

Of that sad flood, which all, whoe'er
Draw here the breath of vital air,

Must cross, whate'er their lot,
Whether be theirs on earth to shine
In kingly palaces, or pine

In peasant's lowly cot.

In vain from war's alarms we run;

In vain of Adria's billows shun

20

The hoarse and broken flood;

In vain we dread the subtle death
Wherewith the south wind's pois'nous breath

In Autumn taints the blood.

Visendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans, et Danai genus
Infame, damnatusque longi

Sisyphus Æolides laboris.

20

Linquenda tellus, et domus, et placens
Uxor; neque harum, quas colis, arborum
Te, præter invisas cupressos,

Ulla brevem dominum sequetur.

25

Absumet hæres Cæcuba dignior
Servata centum clavibus; et mero
Tinguet pavimentum superbo

Pontificum potiore cænis.