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Rich men with change are for the most part pleased;
And neat repasts, by firesides of the poor,
Without soft rugs or purple garniture,

Have a care-wrinkled forehead oft uncreased.
Now hath the sun brought back the, arid days,
And rabid Leo's star again shines bright,

And Procyon rages, and his hidden light
Andromeda's resplendent sire displays.
Now do the weary swain and languid herd
In shaggy Sylvan's bushy thickets hide,
Or seek the shadow of the river side,
Whose stillness by no vagrant breeze is stirred.
Yet is the city's interest still thy care:
Still anxiously thou watchest what Cathay
And Bactria, subjected to Khosrou's sway,

And brawling Tanais for the state prepare.
A prescient god sees fitting to involve

Futurity's event in hazy night,

And smiles when man, beyond the bounds of right, Gropes fearfully. What is at hand, resolve

To use without abusing. All beside

Is onward borne; e'en as to Tuscan sea,
Within its banks, the river peacefully

Now holds its course, and now, with swollen tide,
When quiet streams are chafed by pelting flood,
Together whirls along dismembered rocks,
And trees uptorn, and cottage homes and flocks,
Not without clamour from the neighbouring wood
And from the mountains. He will live content
And master of himself who, day by day,

Plerumque gratae divitibus vices,

Mundaeque parvo sub lare pauperum
Coenae, sine aulaeis et ostro,

Sollicitam explicuere frontem.

Jam clarus occultum Andromedae pater
Ostendit ignem: jam Procyon furit,
Et stella vesani Leonis,

Sole dies referente siccos.

Jam pastor umbras cum grege languido
Rivumque fessus quaerit, et horridi
Dumeta Silvani: caretque

Ripa vagis taciturna ventis.
Tu civitatem quis deceat status,
Curas; et Urbi sollicitus times,
Quid Seres et regnata Cyro
Bactra parent, Tanaisque discors.
Prudens futuri temporis exitum
Caliginosa nocte premit deus:
Ridetque, si mortalis ultra

Fas trepidat. Quod adest, memento
Componere aequus: cetera fluminis
Ritu feruntur, nunc medio alveo
Cum pace delabentis Etruscum

In mare, nunc lapides adesos, Stirpesque raptas, et pecus, et domus Volventis una, non sine montium

Clamore, vicinaeque silvae ;

Cum fera diluvies quietos

Irritat amnes. Ille potens sui
Laetusque deget, cui licet in diem

Can I have lived' exclaim. Be as it may

The morrow, whether Jove the firmament

Shall with black cloud or with bright sun have decked,

What lies behind he cannot render vain,

Nor what the fleeting hours once bring, again

Can he undo or make of none effect.

Fortune, exulting in her fell design,

And bent on playing her insulting play,

Bears her unstable dignities away,

Now unto me, to others now, benign.

While she remains, I praise. Then if she wave
Her rapid pinions, I resign what pelf

She gave, and with my manhood gird myself,
And honest poverty, unportioned, crave.
Ne'er be it mine, howe'er the mast may groan
In Libyan storm, to fall upon my knees
With prayers and vows its fury to appease,
Lest Cyprian and Tyrian wares be thrown
To add new riches to the greedy main.
Then, through the billowy Aegean sea,
In two-oared skiff, twin Pollux, sheltering me,
Shall, with a gently breathing air, sustain.

CARMEN SECULARE.

Chorus puerorum et puellarum.

PHOEBE, silvarumque potens Diana,

Lucidum caeli decus, o colendi

Semper, et culti, date quae precamur
Tempore sacro :

Quo Sibyllini monuere versus,
Virgines lectas puerosque castos,
Dis, quibus septem placuere colles,
Dicere carmen.

Chorus of Boys.

Nurturing Sun, who in thy car resplendent
Bringest and bearest off the day, and risest
Other and same! aught greater than Rome's city
Never behold thou!

Chorus of Girls.

Bland Ilithyia! thou whose 'tis to open
Passage for births mature, watch over mothers,
Whether Lucina to be styled thou choosest

Or Genitalis.

Progeny hasten, goddess, and the Senate's
Edict concerning women's yokedom further,
Furthering likewise wedlock's statute, fraught with
New generations.

Joint Chorus.

Cycle established of eleven decades,

Hymns to us may it bring back, and diversions, Thrice by clear day, as oft beneath night's grateful Shadow, frequented.

Fates, do ye too, veracious in predicting

What has been once ordained, and which the stable Order of things maintains, to past well-being

Add a like future.

Let the earth, with both fruit and cattle teeming,
Ceres present with coronet of wheat ears:

Let benign rain and Jupiter's pure breezes
Nourish the younglings.

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