ODE XXX. TO VENUS. Horace invokes Venus to be present at Glycera's private sacrifice. O VENUS, queen of Cnidos and Paphos, neglect your favourite Cyprus, and transport yourself into the beautiful temple of Glycera, who is invoking you with abundance of frankincense. Let your fervid son hasten along with you, and the Graces, with their zones loosed, and the Nymphs, and Youth disagreeable without you, and Mercury. ODE XXXI. TO APOLLO. That a sound state of body and mind, together with a taste for poetry, exceeds all other blessings of life. WHAT does the poet beg from the consecrated shrine of Phoebus! What does he pray for, while he pours from the flagon the first libation of wine? Not the rich crops of fertile Sardinia: not the goodly flocks of the scorched Calabria: not gold, or Indian ivory: not those countries, which the still river Liris eats away with its silent streams. Premant* Calenâ falce, quibus dedit Dîs carus ipsis: quippe ter et quater Cum mente, nec turpem senectam 10 15 20. CARMEN XXXII. AD LYRAM. Rogatus seculare carmen scribere, lyram suam precatur Horatius ut cantus argumento pares sibi suggerat. POSCIMUS. Si quid vacui sub umbrâ Vivat, et plures; age, dic Latinum, Barbite, carmen, Lesbio primùm modulate civi: Qui ferox bello, tamen inter arma, Sive jactatam religârat udo Littore navim; Liberum et Musas, Veneremque, et illi Semper hærentem puerum canebat, Crine decorum. * Premant Calenâ. Bentl. + Poscimur-vacui sub antro. Dives ut aureis. 5 10 Let those, to whom fortune has given the Calenian vineyards, prune them with a hooked knife: and let the wealthy merchant drink, out of golden cups, the wines procured by his Syrian merchandise, favoured by the Gods themselves, for as much as without loss he visits three or four times a-year the Atlantic sea. Me olives support, me succories and emollient mallows. O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to have my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; and that I may not lead a dishonourable old age, nor one deprived of a taste for music. ODE XXXII. TO HIS LYRE. Being desired to write a secular ode, Horace invokes his lyre to assist him with strains equal to the subject. WE are now called upon. If in idle amusement in the shade with you, we have played any thing that may live for this year and many, come on, assist me with a lyric ode in Latin, my dear lyre,first tuned in Greek by the Lesbian citizen Alcaus: who, fierce in war, yet amidst arms, or if he had made fast to the watery shore his tossed vessel, sung Bacchus and the muses, and Venus, and the boy her ever close attendant, and Lycus, lovely for his black eyes and jetty locks. O thou ornament O decus Phœbi, et dapibus supremi 15 Solatur eum aliorum exemplo, qui amantes non redamentur. ALBI, ne doleas plus nimio, memor Immitis Glyceræ, neu miserabiles Decantes elegos, cur tibi junior Læsâ præniteat fide. Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida Quam turpi Pholoë peccet adultero. Ipsum me melior cum peteret Venus, Curvantis Calabros sinus. 10 15 of Apollo, charming shell, agreeable even at the banquets of supreme Jupiter! O thou sweet alleviator of anxious toils, be propitious to me, whenever I duly invoke thee. ODE XXXIII. TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS. He endeavours to comfort him, by instancing others who were in love without a mutual return. GRIEVE not too much, my Albius, thoughtful of cruel Glycera; nor chant your mournful elegies, because, having forfeited her faith, a younger man is more agreeable than you in her eyes. Behold, a love for Cyrus inflames Lycoris, distinguished for her delicate little forehead:* Cyrus follows the rough-spun Pholoe; but she-goats shall sooner be united to the Apulian wolves, than Pholoe shall commit a crime with a base adulterer. Such is the will of Venus, who delights in cruel sport to subject to her brazen yokes, persons and tempers ill-suited to each other. As for myself, the slaveborn Myrtale, more untractable than the Adriatic sea, that forms the Calabrian gulfs, entangled me in a pleasing chain, at the very time a more eligible love courted my embraces. The ancients thought a small forehead a great beauty, and the ladies affected it in their dress. |