Horace, Epode 2

"Beatus ille qui procul negotiis,

ut prisca gens mortalium,

paterna rura bobus exercet suis,

solutus omni faenore,

neque excitatur classico miles truci,

neque horret iratum mare,

forumque vitat et superba civium

potentiorum limina.

Ergo aut adulta vitium propagine

altas maritat populos,

aut in reducta valle mugientium

prospectat errantis greges,

inutilisque falce ramos amputans

feliciores inserit,

aut pressa puris mella condit amphoris,

aut tondet infirmas ovis;

vel cum decorum mitibus pomis caput

Autumnus agris extulit,

ut gaudet insitiva decerpens pira

certantem et uvam purpurae,

qua muneretur te, Priape, et te, pater

Silvane, tutor finium.

Libet iacere modo sub antiqua ilice,

modo in tenaci gramine;

labuntur altis interim ripis aquae,

queruntur in silvis aves,

fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus,

somnos quod invitet levis.

At cum tonantis annus hibernus Iovis

imbres nivesque comparat,

aut trudit acris hinc et hinc multa cane

apros in obstantis plagas,

aut amite levi rara tendit retia,

turdis edacibus dolos,

pavidumque leporem et advenam laqueo gruem

iucunda captat praemia.

Quis non malarum quas amor curas habet

haec inter obliviscitur?

Quodsi pudica mulier in partem iuvet

domum atque dulcis liberos,

Savina qualis aut perusta solibus

pernici uxor Apuli,

sacrum vetustis exstruat lignis focum

lassi sub adventum viri,

claudensque textis cratibus laetum pecus

distenta sicceet ubera,

et horna dulci vina promens dolio

dapes inemptas apparet,

non me Lucrina iuverint conchylia

magisve rhombus aut scari,

si quos Eois intonata fluctibus

hiems ad hoc vertat mare,

non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum,

non attagen Ionicus

iucundior quam lecta de pinguissimis

oliva ramis arborum

aut herba lapathi prata amantis et gravi

malvae salubres corpori,

vel agna festis caesa Terminalibus

vel haedus ereptus lupo.

Has inter epulas ut iuvat pastas oves

videre properantis domum,

videre fessos vomerem inversum boves

collo trahentis languido

positosque vernas, ditis examen domus,

circum renidentis Lares."

Haec ubi locutus faenerator Alfius,

iam iam futurus rusticus,

omnem redegit Idibus pecuniam,

quaerit Kalendis ponere.

He is blessed who, away from work,

just as the ancient race of mortals,

cultivates his father's farms with his ox,

free from all debt,

and, a soldier, is not stirred up by the wild trumpet,

and, angry, does not shudder at the sea,

and avoids the forum and arrogant thresholds

of powerful citizens.

Therefore either may he marry the high poplars

with the mature offspring of the vines,

or may he gaze out at the herds of wandering (animals),

with the lowing cattle having returned to the valley,

and having cut off the useless branches with a pruning knife

may be graft on the fruitful branches,

or having pressed the honey may he put into clean pitchers,

or may he sheer the gentle sheep;

even when Autumn carried out its head with the adorned

ripe fruits of the field,

how he delights to pluck the grafted pears

and the purple grapes,

with which to honor you, Priapus, and you, father

Silvanus, protector of the country.

It is pleasing to lie now under the ancient ree,

now on the thick grass;

at the same time he slips on the high banks of water,

the birds complain in the forests,

and the streams roar with flowing water,

which invites light sleeps.

But when the winter season provides rains and

snow of thundering Jove,

or pushes the bitter boars here and here with a dog

of many opposing strokes,

or stretches the thin net with the smooth pole,

tricks for greedy thrushes,

and entices with a trap the timid rabbit and foreign

crane, pleasing prizes.

Who does not forget the cares of evil which he holds

among love?

But if a chaste woman helps the house

and sweet children in part,

like a Sabine woman or a wife of persistent

Apulus burned by the sun,

she builds a sacred altar with old wood before

the arrival of a tired man,

and closing the happy herd in the wicker structure,

she drys the full udders,

and, bringing out this year's wines from the sweet jar,

she prepares the unbought fest,

Lucrinus oysters are not pleasing to me more than

turbot or scarfish,

if winter, thundering on the Eastern waves, turned them

to this sea,

the African bird does not descend to my stomach,

nor the Ionican grouse more

pleasing than an olive picked from the fattest

branch of the tree,

or a meadow herb of loving sorrel and a beneficial

plant for a heavy body,

either a ewe slaughtered for the festival of boundaries,

or a kid rescued from a wolf.

Among these feasts how pleasing to see the freed sheep

hurrying home,

to see the tired cows dragging the upside-down plow

with tired necks

and the arranged slaves, swarm of a wealthy home,

around shining Lares."

When the money-lender Alfius had said these things,

now already about to be a farmer,

he returned all money on the Ides,

he seeks to put it on the Kalends.