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.

Dixisse, Vixi: cras vel atra

Nube polum Pater occupato,

Vel sole puro non tamen irritum
Quodcunque retro est, efficiet; neque
Diffinget, infectumque reddet,

Quod fugiens semel hora vexit.
Fortuna saevo laeta negotio, et
Ludum insolentem ludere pertinax,
Transmutat incertos honores,

Nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna. Laudo manentem. Si celeres quatit Pennas, resigno quae dedit, et mea Virtute me involvo, probamque

Pauperiem sine dote quaero. Non est meum, si mugiat Africis Malus procellis, ad miseras preces Decurrere, et votis pacisci,

Ne Cypriae Tyriaeque merces
Addant avaro divitias mari.

Tunc me biremis praesidio scaphae
Tutum per Aegaeos tumultus

Aura feret, geminusque Pollux.

་

This, the last Ode of the third Book, was designed as the epilogue, certainly of that Book, and perhaps of a collective edition of the first three Books.

A MONUMENT more lasting have I wrought
Than bronze, of regal height more vast
Than pyramid's: and to destroy it naught
Shall, or corroding rain, or furious blast
Avail, or time's swift flight,

Or countless years in series infinite

Not wholly shall I die. More part of me
Shall sepulture evade, and I shall still
Gain growth from future ages' eulogy,
Until no more up Capitolian hill
Shall silent virgin be by Pontiff led.
Where'er wild Aufid noises through his bed,
Where'er, o'er rustic nations, was the reign
Of Daunus, scant of water, shall I be
(Then potent grown from out humility)
Owned as the first who set Aeolic strain
To Latian metres. Thine, Melpomene,
Be conscious merit's lofty aspect, thine
My hair with Delphian laurel to entwine.