Salis avarus? Pellitur paternos In sinu ferens deos Et uxor, et vir, sordidosque natos: Nulla certior tamen Rapacis Orci fine destinata Aula divitem manet Herum. Quid ultra tendis? Aequa tellus Pauperi recluditur, Regumque pueris;' nec satelles Orci Callidum Promethea Revexit auro captus. Hic superbum Tantalum, atque Tantali Genus coërcet: hic levare functum Pauperem laboribus, Vocatus, atque non vocatus, audit. XIX. IN BACCHUM. BACCHUM in remotis carmina rupibus Evoe! my soul with recent terror quakes, Tremendous with thine ivied spear! To me, of wanton Thyades to sing 'Tis given, of jets of wine, of brooks that bring And crush Lycurgus, Prince of Thrace. O'er rivers and barbarian sea thou reign'st. Thou, dewy, mid sequestered cliffs, constrain'st Bistonides their hair to tie With knotted vipers harmlessly. Thou, when the impious band of giants scaled The heavens, and thy father's realms assailed, Did'st Rhoetus with thy terrible Leonine jaws and tusks repel. Although more fit for play and jokes and dance Reported, and to warlike dalliance Unequal, as in peace, e'en so In conflict thou thy might did'st show. On thee did Cerberus benignly look Decked with thine horns of gold, and gently shook His tail; and with his tongue three-peaked Evoe! recenti mens trepidat metu Parce, gravi metuende thyrso ! Lapsa cavis iterare mella: Fas et beatae conjugis additum Stellis honorem, tectaque Penthei Disjecta non leni ruina, Thracis et exitium Lycurgi. Tu flectis amnes, tu mare barbarum: Bistonidum sine fraude crines. Tu, cum parentis regna per arduum Cohors Gigantum scanderet impia, Rhoetum retorsisti leonis Unguibus, horribilique mala: Horace knew as well as most poets how to praise himself and his works, but on this occasion he seems to have thought that it would be as well to appear to be only half in earnest in doing so. A BIFORM poet, not on wings outworn Or frail, shall I through aether's lymph be borne. To envy's taunts superior, I will quit cities. I, Maecenas dear, Pent within Stygian waters lie. E'en now rough fleeces on my legs alight, And, from above, into a snowy white Swan, I am changed, and with light down. Now, songbird, than Daedalian Icarus Me Colchian, far Gelonian, Dacian who Away with dirge, and empty obsequies, The tomb's superfluous vanity. XX. NON usitata nec tenui ferar Penna biformis per liquidum aethera Urbes relinquam. Non ego, pauperum Nec Stygia cohibebor unda. Jam jam residunt cruribus asperae Pelles, et album mutor in alitem Superne, nascunturque leves Per digitos humerosque plumae. Jam Daedaleo ocior Icaro Ales Hyperboreosque campos. Discet Hiber, Rhodanique potor. Absint inani funere neniae, Luctusque turpes et querimoniae ; Mitte supervacuos honores. |