Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Horace, Ode 1.23

Vitas inuleo me similis, Chloe,
quaerenti pavidam montibus aviis
matrem non sine vano
aurarum et siluae metu.

Nam seu mobilibus veris inhorruit
adventus foliis, seu virides rubum
dimovere lacertae,
et corde et genibus tremit.

Atqui non ego te tigris ut aspera
Gaetulusve leo frangere persequor:
tandem desine matrem
tempestiva sequi viro.


You avoid me like a fawn, Chloe,
searching for its fearful mother in lonely
mountains not without an empty fear
of breezes and the forest.

For whether the arrival of spring quivers
with moving leaves, or the green lizards have
pushed aside the bramble,
and the fawn trembles with its heart and knees.

And yet I do not pursue you to crush you
as a harsh tiger or Gaetulian lion:
finally you, ripe to follow a man,
abandon your mother.

1 comment:

  1. Lovely translation! One thing: "et corde et genibus tremit". Usually an et...et construction is translated "both...and". The fawn trembles with both its heart and its knees.

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