Sunday, February 27, 2011

Horace, Ode 1.7

Laudabunt alii claram Rhodon aut Mytilenen
aut Epheson bimarisve Corinthi
moenia vel Baccho Thebas vel Apolline Delphos
insignis aut Thessala Tempe.

Sunt quibus unum opus est intactae Palladis urbem
carmine perpetuo celebrare et
undique decerptam fronti praeponere olivam;
plurimus in Iuonis honorem

aptum diceet equis Argos ditisque Mycenas:
me nec tam patiens Lacedaemon
nec tam Larisae percussit campus optimae,
quam domus Albuneae resonantis

et praeceps Anio ac Tiburni lucus et uda
mobilibus pomaria rivis.
Albus ut obscuro deterget nubila caelo
saepe Notus neque parturit imbris

perpetuos, sic tu sapiens finire memento
tristitiam vitaeque labores
molli, Plance, mero, seu te fulgentia signis
castra tenent seu densa tenebit

Tiburis umbra tui. Teucer Salamina patremque
cum fugeret, tamen uda Lyaeo
tempora populea fertur vinxisse corona,
sic tristis affatus amicos:

"Quo nos cumque feret melior fortuna parente,
ibimus, o socii comitesque.
Nil desperandum Teucro duce et auspice Teucro;
certus enim promisit Apollo

ambiguam tellure nova Salamina futuram.
O fortes peioraque passi
mecum saepe viri, nunc vino pellite curas;
cras ingens iterabimus aequor.


Others will praise famous Rhodes or Mytilene
or Ephesus or the walls of Corinth between
two seas or Thebes famous for Bacchus or Delphi
famous for Apollo or Thessaly famous for Tempe.

There are those for whom it is one work to celebrate with
perpetual song the city of untouched Athena and
to place in front of their forehead a plucked olive from all sides;
many a one will offer Greek horses and

Mycenean riches suitable for the honor of Juno;
neither so much as hardy Lacedaemon
nor so much as the field of fertile Larisa has struck me
as the house of resonating Albunea

and steep Anio and the sacred grove of the Tibur and
the orchards wet with moving rivers.
White Notus often scatters the clouds from the dim
sky and does not bring forth clouds of perpetual

rain, thus you be wise and remember to finish
the sadness and troubles of life
with mellow wine, Plancus, whether the gleaming camps
represent you with signs or the dense shadow

of your Tibur will hold you. When Teucer fled from Salamina
and his father, nevertheless it is said that he
bound his temples soaked with wine with a poplar crown,
thus he spoke to his sad friends:

"Wherever a fortune better than my father will bear us,
we will go, oh friends and companions.
Do not despair with Teucer as leader and with Teucer as augur;
even sure Apollo promised

that there will be an ambiguous Salamina in a new land.
Oh strong men and men who have
often suffered worse with me, now drive our your cares with wine;
tomorrow we will resume (our voyage on) the vast sea."

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