Monday, March 21, 2011

Horace, Ode 2.10

Rectius vives, Licini, neque altum
semper urgendo neque, dum procellas
cautus horrescis, nimium premendo
litus iniquum.

Auream quisquis mediocritatem
diligit, tutus caret obsoleti
sordibus tecti, caret invidenda
sobrius aula.

Saepius ventis agitatur ingens
pinus et celsae graviore casu
decidunt turres feriuntque summos
fulgura montis.

Sperat infestis, metuit secundis
alteram sortem bene praeparatum
pectus. Informis hiemes reducit
Iuppiter; idem

summovet. Non, si male nunc, et olim
sic erit: quondam cithara tacentem
suscitat Musam neque semper arcum
tendit Apollo.

Rebus angustis animosus atque
fortis appare; sapienter idem
contrahes vento nimium secundo
turgida vela.



You will live better, Licinius, by neither
always pressing the deep nor, while you carefully
dread storms, by excessively pressing
the treacherous shore.

Whoever values a golden mean
is safely free from the squalor
of a worn-out house, is soberly free from
an envious palace.

The vast pine is more often moved
by the wind and the high towers fall
with a more serious fall and the lightening
strikes the highest mountains.

The well-prepared heart hopes for the other fate
in dangerous affairs, and fears the other fate in favorable
affairs. Jupiter brings back ugly
winters; likewise,

he removes them. If it is badly now, once it will
not be so: once Apollo stirs the silent
Muse with his lyre and does not
always stretch his bow.

Appear strong and firm in steep
affairs; likewise, you will wisely
shorten your sails swollen in a
too favorable wind.

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