Liber II.-Carmen X.--Ad Licinium.
Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
Semper urgendo; neque, dum procellas
Cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
Litus iniquum.
Auream quisquis mediocritatem
Diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
Sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
Sobrius aula.
Sæpius ventis agitatur ingens
Pinus; et celsa graviore casu
Decidunt turres; feriuntque summos
Fulmina montes.
Sperat infestis, metuit secundis
Alteram sortem bene præparatum
Pectus informes hiemes reducit
Jupiter; idem
Summovet: non, si male nunc, et olim
Sic erit: quondam cithara tacentem
Suscitat Musam, neque semper arcum
Tendit Apollo.
Rebus angustis animosus atque
Fortis appare: sapienter idem
Contrahes vento nimium secundo
Book 2.-Ode 10.-To Licinius.
Licinius know your safer way,
Is not still on the main to stray;
Nor whilst you wisely storms abhor,
Too much to seek the shelvy shore.
He who affects the golden mean,
Lives safe from cottages unclean:
And sober, doth as much despise,
In envy-breeding courts to rise.
The blustering winds more often far
'Gainst lofty pines do threaten war:
Brave towers with greater ruin fall,
And thunders highest hills enthrall.
Each fortune suits with minds prepar'd,
They fear in good, and hope in hard.
Jove brings in horrid winter's rage,
And suddenly doth it assuage.
If with thee now it be but ill,
Resolve, it cannot be so still.
Sometimes Apollo's silent muse
Speaks in his harp, nor doth he use
Always to bend his angry bow:
In crosses, strength and courage shew:
And wisely strike sails when you find
Them filled with too prosp'rous wind.
*The man within the golden mean,
Who can his boldest wish contain ;
Securely views the ruin'd cell,
Where sordid want and sorrow dwell;
And in himself securely great,
Declines an envied room of state.-(FRANCIS.)
Liber IV.-Carmen VII.-Ad Torquatum.
Diffugere nives: redeunt jam gramina campis,
Arboribusque comæ :
Mutat terra vices; et decrescentia ripas
Flumina prætereunt:
Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet
Ducere nuda choros.
Immortalia ne speres, monet annus, et almum
Quæ rapit hora diem.
Frigora mitescunt Zephyris; ver proterit æstas,
Interitura simul
Pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit: et mox
Bruma recurret iners.
Damna tamen celeres reparant cœlestia lunæ :
Nos ubi decidimus
Quo pius Eneas, quo Tullus, dives et Ancus,
Pulvis et umbra sumus.
Quis scit an adjiciant hodiernæ crastina sumæ
Tempora di superi?
Cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico
Quæ dederis animo.
Cum semel occideris, et de te splendida Minos
Fecerit arbitria;
Non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te
Restituet pietas.
Infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum
Liberat Hippolytum :
Nec Lethaa valet Theseus abrumpere caro
Vincula Pirithoo.
Book 4.-Ode 7.-To Lucius Manlius Torquatus.
Now snows are quite dissolv'd, fresh grass we see
To fields returned, and leaves to every tree.
Earth changeth hue; the swelling waters sink,
And with soft current glide within their brink.
Aglaia naked, dares upon the ground
With nymphs and her two sisters dance around.
Hope not in mortal things!-so years do say,
So warn the hours, which circumvolve the day.
Soft western winds on winter, mildness bring,
Soon with'ring summer weareth out the spring,
Then mellow autumn pours his fruit amain,
And instantly dull winter 'turns again.
Yet speedy moons these heavenly charms restore;
But when we hence depart, where gone before
Rich Tullus, good Æneas, Ancus stay,
We are but dust and shadows pass'd away !*
Who knoweth whether the celestial powers
Will add to this day's sum, to morrow's hours.
Your greedy heir in nothing shall have part
Of what your living gave with bounteous heart,
But when you once are dead, and powers divine,
To you an equal sentence shall assign;
Nor blood, Torquatus then, nor fluent vein,
Nor piety, can life restore again!
For neither chaste Hippolitus, was free
By Dian sent, from hell's obscurity;
Nor for his dear Pyrithous, the pains
Of Theseus could dissolve Lethean chains.
* The moon renews her orb with growing light,
But when we sink into the depths of night,
Where all the good, the rich, the brave are laid,
Our best remains are ashes and a shade. (FRANCIS.)
To convey the beauty of the original is impossible, but Francis departs entirely from the literal meaning.
Liber IV.-Carmen XII.-Ad Virgilium.
Jam veris comites, quæ mare temperant,
Impellunt animæ lintea Thraciæ:
Jam nec prata rigent, nec fluvii strepunt
Hiberna nive turgidi:
Nidum ponit, Ityn flebilitur gemens,
Infelix avis, et Cecropiæ domus
Eternum opprobrium; quod male barbaras
Regum est ulta libidines:
Dicunt in tenero gramine pinguium
Custodes ovium carmina fistula ;
Delectantque Deum, cui pecus et nigri
Colles Arcadia placent.
Adduxere sitim tempora, Virgili:
Sed pressum Calibus ducere Liberum
Si gestis, juvenum nobilium cliens,
Nardo vina merebere:
parvus onyx eliciet cadum, Qui nunc Sulpitiis accubat horreis, Spes donare novas largus, amaraque Curarum eluere efficax.
quæ si properas gaudia, cum tua
Velox merce veni: non ego te meis
Immunem meditor tingere poculis,
Plena dives ut in domo.
Verum pone moras et studium lucri ;
Nigrorumque memor, dum licet, ignium,
Misce stultitiam consiliis brevem:
Dulce est desipere in loco.
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