virtue, and court honeft poverty without a portion. "Tis no bufinefs of mine, if the maft groan with the African storms, to have recourfe to piteous prayers, and to make a bargain with my vows, that my Cyprian and Syrian merchandize may not make an addition to the wealth of the infatiable fea. Then the fanning gale and the twin Pollux fhall carry me fafe in the protection of a skiff with two oars, through the tumultuous Egean fea, ODE XXX. He promifes himself an immortality of fame from his poetical writings. I HAVE executed a monument more lafting than brafs, and more fublime than the regal elevation of pyramids, which the wafting rain, the unavailing north-wind, or an innumerable fucceffion S of years, and the flight of feafons, shall not be able to demolish. I fhall not wholly die, but a great part of me fhall efcape Libitina.* 1 fhall continually be renewed in the praises of pofterity, as long as the priest fhall afcend the Capitol with the filent veftal virgin. Where the rapid Aufidus fhall murmur, and where Daunus, poorly fupplied with water, ruled over a ruftic people, I, exalted from a low degree, fhall be acknowledged as having originally adapted the Aeolic verfe to Italian meafures. Melpomene affume that pride which your merits have acquired, and willingly crown my hair with the Delphic laurel. Q. HORATII FLACCI CARMINUM LIBER IV. CARMEN I. AD VENEREM. Se jam ea aetate effe, ut a rebus Veneris alieno animo effe debeat. INTERMISSA, Venus, diu Rurfus bella moves? Parce precor, precor. Non fum qualis eram bonae Sub regno Cynarae. define, dulcium Mater faeva Cupidinum Circa luftra decem flectere mollibus Jam durum imperiis: abi Quo blandae juvenum te revocant preces. Tempeftivius in domo Pauli, purpureis ales oloribus. 59 10 Com He was now arrived at fuch an age that he ought no longer to think of love affairs. AFTER a long ceffation, O Venus, again are you ftirring up tumults. Spare me, I be feech you, I beseech you. I am not the man I was under the dominion of good-natured Cynara. Forbear, thou cruel mother of foft defires, to bend one bordering upon fifty, now too hardened for your foft commands: go whither the foothing prayers of youth invoke thee. More feasonably may you revel in the house of Paulus Maximus, N 4 flying Commeffabere Maximi; Si torrere jecur quaeris idoneum. Late figna feret militia tuae: Largis numeribus riferit aemuli, Albanos prope te lacus Ponet marmoream fub trabe citrea. Illic plurima naribus Duces thura; [a] lyraeque et Berecyntiae Delectabere tibiae Miftis carminibus, non fine fistula. Illic bis pueri die Laudantes, pede candido Me nec foemina, nec puer 15 20 25 Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum In morem Salium ter quatient humum. Jam, nec fpes animi credula mutui 30 Nec certare juvat mero, Nec vincire novis tempora floribus. Sed cur, heu! Ligurine, cur Manat rara meas lacryma per genas? Cur facunda parum decoro 35 Inter verba cadit lingua filentio ? Nocturnis te ego fomniis Jam captum teneo, jam volucrem fequor Te per gramina Martii Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles. 40 CARMEN [a] Lyraque et Berecynthia-tibia. flying thither with your splendid fwans; if you feek to enflame a fuitable breast. For he is both noble and graceful, and by no means filent in the cause of diftreffed defendants, and a youth of an hundred accomplishments, he shall bear the enfigns of your warfare far and wide: and whenever more prevailing than the ample prefents of a rival he fhall laugh at his expence, he fhall erect thee in marble under a citron dome near the Alban lake. There you shall smell abundant frankincenfe, and fhall be charmed with the mixed mufic of the lyre and Berecynthian pipe, not with the flagelet. There the youths, together with the tender maidens, twice a day celebrating your divinity, fhall, Salian-like,§ with fnow-white foot, thrice shake the ground. As for me, neither woman, nor youth, nor the fond hope of a mutual inclination, nor to contend in wine, nor to bind my temples with fresh flowers, delight me any longer. But why, ah! why, O Ligurinus, does the tear every now and then trickle down my cheeks? Why does my fluent tongue falter between my words with an i ill-becoming filence? Thee, in my dreams by night I clafp, caught in my arms; thee flying crofs the turf of the Campus Martius, thee I purfue, O cruel one, through the rolling waters. N°5 $ Priefts of Bacchus. ODE |
