328

THE SPIRIT AND THE MUSE.

LIBER II.

CARMEN XIV.

Eheu fugaces, Postume Postume,
Labuntur anni, nec pietas moram
Rugis et instanti senectae

Afferet indomitaeque morti;

Non si trecenis quotquot eunt dies,
Amice, places inlacrimabilem
Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum

Geryonen Tityonque tristi

Compescit unda, scilicet omnibus,
Quicumque terrae munere vescimur,
Enaviganda, sive reges

Sive inopes erimus coloni.

Alas! how swiftly glide the years away!
Nor will devotion, Postumus, delay
Wrinkles, and

age

fast pressing on,
And Death that hath been tamed of none;

Not if three hundred bulls each day, my friend,
Thou offer Pluto, whom no tears can bend,

Who Tityos, and that monstrous birth,
The triple-bodied Son of Earth,

Confines by sullen wave, o'er which, be sure,
All we, who feed

upon

earth’s bounteous store, Must sail perforce, whether kings we be, Or husbandmen of low degree.

Frustra cruento Marte carebimus
Fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
Frustra per autumnos nocentem

Corporibus metuemus austrum.

Visendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
Infame damnatusque longi
Sisyphus Aeolides laboris.

Linquenda tellus et domus et placens Uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum Te praeter invisas cupressos

Ulla brevem dominum sequetur.

Absumet heres Caecuba dignior
Servata centum clavibus et mero
Tinguet pavimentum superbo,
Pontificum potiore cenis.

In vain shall we from bloody Mars be free,
And the rough breakers of hoarse Hadria's sea ;
In vain throughout the Autumns fear
The Auster's pestilential air.

Visit we must the slow meandering flood,
Cocytus black, and Danaus' cursed brood,
And Sisyphus condemned to endure,
Great Eolus' son, toil evermore.

Aye, leave thou must earth, house, and consort dear, And of these trees which thou dost fondly rear, None but the cypresses abhorred

Shall follow thee, their shortlived lord.

A worthier heir shall draw off to the lees
The vintage guarded with a hundred keys,

And choicer wine the floor shall stain
Than Pontiffs at their banquets drain.

LIBER II.

CARMEN XVI.

Otium divos rogat in patenti

Prensus Ægaeo, simul atra nubes
Condidit lunam neque certa fulgent
Sidera nautis ;

Otium bello furiosa Thrace,

Otium Medi pharetra decori,

Grosphe, non gemmis neque purpura venale neque auro.

Non enim gazae neque consularis
Summovet lictor miseros tumultus
Mentis et curas laqueata circum
Tecta volantis.