Et tollens vacuum plus nimio Gloria verticem,
Arcanique Fides prodiga, perlucidior vitro.
Arcuses self-love, by blindness misled,
And vanity, lifting aloft the light head,
And honour, of prodigal spirit, that shows,
Transparent as glass, all the secrets it knows.
INNOCENCE Of Life.
Od. i. 22. 1.
Integer vitæ scelerisque purus
Non eget Mauri jaculis neque arcu,
Nec venenatis gravidâ sagittis,
Fusce, pharetrâ;
Sive per Syrtes iter æstuosas,
Sive facturus per inhospitalem
Caucasum, vel quæ loca fabulosus
Lambit Hydaspes.
The man who knows not guilty fear,
Nor wants the bow nor pointed spear;
Nor needs, while innocent of heart,
The quiver teeming with the poison'd dart,
Whether through Libya's burning sands
His journey leads, or Scythia's lands,
Inhospitable waste of snows,
Or where the fabulous Hydaspes flows.
DESCRIPTION OF FRIGID AND TORRID ZONES.
Od. i. 22. 17.
Pone me, pigris ubi nulla campis
Arbor æstivâ recreatur aurâ,
Quod latus mundi nebulæ malusque
Jupiter urget;
Pone sub curru nimium propinqui
Solis, in terrâ domibus negatâ ;
Dulce ridentem Lalagen amabo,
Dulce loquentem.
Place me where never summer breeze
Unbinds the glebe or warms the trees;
Where ever-lowering clouds appear,
And angry Jove deforms th' inclement year:
Place me beneath the burning ray,
Where rolls the rapid car of day;
Love and the nymph shall charm my toils,
The nymph who sweetly speaks and sweetly smiles.
GRIEF FOR A FRIEND'S DEATH.
Od. i. 24. 1.
Quis desiderio sit pudor aut modus
Tam cari capitis? Præcipe lugubres
Cantus, Melpomene, cui liquidam pater
Vocem cum citharâ dedit.
Ergo Quintilium perpetuus sopor
Urget! cui Pudor, et Justitiæ soror
Incorrupta Fides, nudaque Veritas
Quando ullum inveniet parem?
Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit;
Nulli flebilior quam tibi, Virgili.
Wherefore restrain the tender tear?
Why blush to weep for one so dear?
Sweet Muse, of melting voice and lyre,
Do thou the mournful song inspire.
Quintilius sunk to endless rest,
With death's eternal sleep opprest!
Oh! when shall Faith, of soul sincere,
Of Justice pure the sister fair,
And Modesty, unspotted maid,
And Truth in artless guise array'd,
Among the race of human kind
An equal to Quintilius find?
How did the good, the virtuous mourn,
And pour their sorrows o'er his urn!
But, Virgil, thine the loudest strain;
Yet all thy pious grief is vain.
Durum, sed levius fit patientiâ,
Quicquid corrigere est nefas.
"Tis hard but patience must endure,
And soothe the woes it cannot cure.
A POET'S FREEDOM FROM CARE.
Od. i. 26. 1.
Musis amicus, tristitiam et metus
Tradam protervis in mare Creticum
Portare ventis.
While in the Muse's friendship blest,
Nor fear nor grief shall break my rest;
Bear them, ye vagrant winds, away,
And drown them in the Cretan sea.
A POET'S FAME.
Od. i. 26. 9.
Nil sine te mei
Without thee nothing can my honours do.
DANGERS OF LOVE.
Od. i. 27. 19.
Quantâ laboras in Charybdi!
Unhappy youth! how art thou lost,
In what a sea of troubles tost!
PRAYER FOR HEALTH AND SOUNDNESS OF MIND. Od. i. 31. 17.
Frui paratis et valido mihi,
Latoë, dones, et precor integrâ
Cum mente; nec turpem senectam
Degere, nec citharâ carentem.
Nor ask I more than sense and health
Still to enjoy my present wealth.
From age and all its weakness free,
O son of Jove, preserved by thee,
Give me to strike the tuneful lyre,
And thou my latest song inspire.
APOLLO'S LYRE.
Od. i. 32. 14.
Grata testudo Jovis, o laborum
Dulce lenimen!
Charming shell, Apollo's love,
How grateful to the feasts of Jove!
Hear thy poet's solemn prayer,
Thou soft'ner of each anxious care.
THE CHANGES OF LIFE.
Od. i. 34. 12.
Valet ima summis
Mutare, et insignem attenuat deus,
Obscura promens: hinc apicem rapax
Fortuna cum stridore acuto
Sustulit; hic posuisse gaudet.
The hand of Jove can crush the proud
Down to the meanest of the crowd,
And raise the lowest in his stead;
But rapid Fortune pulls him down,
And snatches his imperial crown
To place, not fix it, on another's head.
FORTUNE WORSHIPPED BY ALL.
Od. i. 35. 9.
Te Dacus asper, te profugi Scythæ,
Urbesque, gentesque, et Latium ferox,
Regumque matres barbarorum, et
Purpurei metuunt tyranni,
Injurioso ne pede proruas
Stantem columnam, neu populus frequens
Ad arma cessantes, ad arma
Concitet, imperiumque frangat.
Te semper anteit serva Necessitas,
Clavos trabales et cuneos manu
Gestans ænâ; nec severus
Uncus abest, liquidumque plumbum.
Thee the rough Dacian, thee the vagrant band
Of field-born Scythians, Latium's warlike land,
Cities and nations, mother-queens revere,
And purple tyranny beholds with fear.
Nor in thy rage with foot destructive spurn
This standing pillar, and its strength o'erturn;
Nor let the nations rise in bold uproar,
And civil war, to break th' imperial power.
With solemn pace and firm, in awful state
Before thee stalks inexorable Fate,
And grasps empaling nails, and wedges dread,
The hook tormentous, and the melted lead.
SUMMER FRIENDS.
Od. i. 35. 25.
At vulgus infidum, et meretrix retro
Perjura cedit: diffugiunt, cadis
Cum fæce siccatis, amici,
Ferre jugum pariter dolosi.
Not such the crowd of light companions prove,
Nor the false mistress of a wanton love,
Faithless who wait the lowest dregs to drain,
Nor friendship's equal yoke with strength sustain.
THE WICKEDNESS OF MANKIND.
Od. i. 35. 34.
Quid nos dura refugimus
Etas? quid intactum nefasti
Liquimus?
What crimes have we, an iron age, not dared?
In terror of the gods what altar spared?
THE LAST ROSE OF SUMMER.
Od. i. 38. 3.
Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum
Sera moretur.
Then search not where the curious rose
Beyond his season loitering grows.
Danger of GIVING OFFENCE IN WRITING CONTEMPORARY
Periculosæ plenum opus aleæ,
Tractas; et incedis per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso.
(A labour vast!
Doubtful the die, and dire the cast!)
You treat adventurous, and incautious tread
On fires with faithless embers overspread.
A GREAT ADVOCATE.
Od. ii. 1. 13.
Insigne mœstis præsidium reis,
Et consulenti, Pollio, curiæ.
O Pollio, thou the greatest defence
Of sad, impleaded innocence,
On whom, to weigh the grand debate,
In deep consult the fathers wait.
CHARACTER OF CATO.
Od. ii. 1. 23.
Et cuncta terrarum subacta,
Præter atrocem animum Catonis.
And all the world in chains, but Cato see
Of spirit unsubdued, and dying to be free.
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