QUINTI HORATII FLACCI CARMINUM LIBER PRIMUS. ODE I. AD MECENATEM. MECENAS, atavis edite regibus, O et præsidium, et dulce decus meum ! Sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum Collegisse juvat: metaque fervidis Evitata rotis, palmaque nobilis Terrarum dominos evehit ad Deos. Hunc, si mobilium turba Quiritium Certat tergeminis tollere honoribus: Illum, si proprio condidit horreo Quidquid de Libycis verritur areis: Gaudentem patrios findere sarculo Mercator metuens, otium et oppidi THE ODES OF HORACE. BOOK I. M ODE I. TO MECENAS. ÆCENAS, who from kings can'st boast descent, My safe-guard and my sweetest ornament, To some th' Olympic dust to raise is dear; Whilst with the glowing wheel the goal to clear, To wear the triple honours one is proud, Gain'd through the struggles of th' inconstant crowd; All that is swept from Lybia's threshing-floors. It's fields and rest; but, want unused to bear, Quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati. Est qui nec veteris pocula Massici, Nec partem solido demere de die Spernit: nunc viridi membra sub arbuto Stratus, nunc ad aquæ lene caput sacræ. Multos castra juvant, et lituo tubæ Permistus sonitus, bellaque matribus Detestata. Manet sub Jove frigido Venator, teneræ conjugis immemor, Seu visa est catulis cerva fidelibus, Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas. Me doctarum hederæ præmia frontium Dis miscent superis: me gelidum nemus, Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori, Secernunt populo; si neque tibias Euterpe cohibet, nec Polyhymnia Lesboüm refugit tendere barbiton. Quod si me lyricis vatibus inseris, Sublimi feriam sidera vertice. His shatter'd bark soon hastens to repair. Their limbs now stretching 'neath the arbute green, Of trump and horn, and war, the mother's bane. If chance his well-train'd hounds the stag to rouse, And Polyhymnia sound the Lesbian lute. Class me but 'mongst the Lyric poets, I, With head sublime, shall strike the starry sky. ODE II. AD AUGUSTUM CÆSAREM. AM satis terris nivis, atque diræ JAM Grandinis misit Pater; et rubente Dexterâ sacras jaculatus arces, Terruit urbem, Terruit gentes, grave ne rediret Piscium et summâ genus hæsit ulmo, Vidimus flavum Tiberim, retortis Iliæ dum se nimiùm querenti Jactat ultorem, vagus et sinistrâ Labitur ripâ, Jove non probante, uxorius amnis. Audiet cives acuisse ferrum, Quo graves Persæ meliùs perirent; Rara juventus. |