What tender young man dripping in perfume

amid many a rose presses you, Pyrrha,

            in gracious grotto? For whom

            do you set your flaming hair

so simply elegant?  Alas, will he daily

lament fides and gods reversed and marvel

unprepared for seas brisling

with dark winds,

who now gullibly  enjoys you still golden,

who hopes you ever available and ever lovable,

            unaware of golden

            lies.  Miserable are those

for whom you are glimmering untried! As for me  votive tablet on temple walls marks how

            I have hung up wet garments

            to the mighty god of the sea!

5

10

15

Quis multa gracilis te puer in rosa
perfusus liquidis urget odoribus
     grato, Pyrrha, sub antro?
     cui flauam religas comam,

simplex munditiis? Heu quotiens fidem  
mutatosque deos flebit et aspera
     nigris aequora uentis
     emirabitur insolens,

qui nunc te fruitur credulus aurea,
qui semper uacuam, semper amabilem 
     sperat, nescius aurae
     fallacis. Miseri, quibus

intemptata nites. Me tabula sacer
uotiua paries indicat uuida
      suspendisse potenti
     uestimenta maris deo.

Horace Odes 1. 5

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10

15

20

25

30

35

Maecenas atavis edite regibus

Maecenas, edited from ancestor kings,

my praesidium, my pride, and my delight,

some like to collect Olympic dust

on their chariots, and if their scorching wheels

graze the turning-post and they win the palm of glory,

they become lords of the earth and rise to the gods;

one man is pleased if the fickle mob of Roman citizens

competes to lift him up to triple honours;

another, if he stores away in his own granary

the sweepings from all the threshing-floors of Libya; 10

the man who enjoys cleaving his ancestral fields

with the mattock, you could never move, not with the legacy

of Attalus, to become a frightened sailor

cutting the Myrtoan sea with Cyprian timbers;

the merchant, terrified at the brawl of African gale

with Icarian waves, is all for leisure and the countryside

round his own home town, but he is soon rebuilding

his shattered ships-he cannot learn to endure poverty;

there is a man who sees no objection to drinking

old Massic wine or taking time out of the day, 20

stretched out sometimes under the green arbutus,

sometimes by a gently welling spring of sacred water;

many enjoy the camp, the sound of the trumpet merged

in the bugle, the wars that mothers

abhor; the huntsman stays out under a cold sky,

and forgets his tender wife the moment

his faithful dogs catch sight of a hind

or a Marsian boar bursts his delicate nets.

As for me, it is ivy, the reward of learned brows,

that puts me among the gods above. As for me,

the cold grove and the light-footed choruses of Nymphs

and Satyrs set me apart from the people

if Euterpe lets me play her pipes, and Polyhymnia

does not withhold the lyre of Lesbos.

But if you enrol me among the lyric bards

my soaring head will touch the stars.

Horace Odes 1.1

Nunc est bibendum, nunc pede libero

pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus

       ornare pulvinar deorum

               tempus erat dapibus, sodales.

antehac nefas depromere Caecubum   5

cellis avitis, dum Capitolio

             regina dementis ruinas

                  funus et imperio parabat

contaminato cum grege turpium

morbo virorum, quidlibet inpotens      10

        sperare fortunaque dulci

               ebria. sed minuit furorem

vix una sospes navis ab ignibus

mentemque lymphatam Mareotio

            redegit in veros timores            15

                 Caesar ab Italia volantem

remis adurgens, accipiter velut

mollis columbas aut leporem citus

       venator in campis nivalis

              Haemoniae, daret ut catenis   20

fatale monstrum: quae generosius

perire quaerens nec muliebriter

            expavit ensem nec latentis

                        classe cita reparavit oras,

ausa et iacentem visere regiam           25

voltu sereno, fortis et asperas

             tractare serpentes, ut atrum

                 corpore conbiberet venenum,

deliberata morte ferocior:

saevis Liburnis scilicet invidens          30

           privata deduci superbo

              non humilis mulier triumpho.

Now is for drinking, now for earth beaten

with foot that is free;  now,

         my friends, would be time to bedeck 

                 couchs of gods with Salarian banquets!

Before this it was irreligious to pour out

Caecuban from ancestral cellars, while  Queen

            prepared mad destruction for Capitolium

                         and  funeral even for imperium

with contaminated,  infected flock of loathsome 

males, raging and drunk enough in everyway

            to set her hopes on sweet

                        fortune. But scarcely  single

ship safe from fire diminished furor

and Caesar redirected her mind, frantic with Mareotic,

            to real fears as he surged with oars

                        after her flying from Italia

like hawk after  gentle

doves, or swift hunter

            after rabbit in fields of  snowy

                        Haemonia, to place in chains

fatal  monstrosity: she more nobly

seeking to perish did not in womanly way

            blanch  at sword, nor did she

                        repair to hidden shores in swift ship,

daring even to stare at collapsing kingdom

with calm face, and brave to handle

            savage serpents, in order

                        to drink black venom with her body,

more fierce in  deliberate death:

refusing with distain to be led in cruel Liburnians,

            ordinary woman in high

                triumph,  no lowly woman she.

I have exacted a monument more lasting than bronze

higher even than the regal site of pyramids,

which neither eroding rain, nor north wind raging

can destroy nor innumerable

sequences of years and flight of seasons.                  5

Not all of me will die and a large part

will avoid Libitina: I shall continue

to grow afresh in praise to come, so long as

pontifex climbs Capitolium with silent virgin:

I shall be said, where wild Aufidus roars                 10

and where Daunus, poor in water, over rustic

folk once ruled, from humble source a powerful

princeps to have led Aeolian songs into

Italian metres. Put on haughty pride

earned with merit, and willingly,                             15

Melpomene, gird my locks with Delphic laurel.

Exegi monumentum aere perennius

regalique situ pyramidum altius,

quod non imber edax, non aquilo impotens

possit diruere aut innumerabilis

annorum series et fuga temporum.

Non omnis moriar multaque par mei

vitabit Libitinam: usque ego postera

crescam laude recens, dum Capitolium

scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex:

dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus

et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium

regnavit populorum, ex humili potens

princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos

deduxisse modos. sume superbiam

quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica

lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.

7. Libitina is the goddess of funerals.

8. Capitolium is the Capitoline hill on top of which are located

    the temples of Jupiter Optimus Maximus, Juno and Minerva.

9. Pontifex and vestal virgin are responsible for ritual.

10. Aufidus is a river in Apulia; Horace is from Apulia.

11. Daunus was a legendary king in Apulia. His son is Turnus in Vergil’s Aeneid.

13. Princeps means leading citizen and is about the closest we can get to a title 

     for Caesar Augustus. Horace here is like a general leading an invading poetical

     Aeolian army into Italian measures.

16. Melpomene is the Muse for lyric and tragic poetry.