Horace, Ode 2.20

Non usitata nec tenui ferar

penna biformis per liquidum aethera

vates, neque in terris morabor

longius invidiaque maior

urbes relinquam. Non ego, pauperum

sanguis parentum, non ego, quem vocas,

dilecte Maecenas, obibo

nec Stygia cohibebor unda.

Iam iam residunt cruribus asperae

pelles, et album mutor in alitem

superne, nascunturque leves

per digitos umerosque plumae.

Iam Daedaleo notior Icaro

visam gementis litora Bosphori

Syrtisque Gaetulas canorus

ales Hyperboreosque campos.

Me Colchus et, qui dissimulat metum

Marsae cohortis, Dacus et ultimi

nosent Geloni, me peritus

discet Hiber Rhodanique potor.

Absint inani funere neniae

luctusque turpes et querimoniae;

compesce clamorem ac sequlcri

mitte supervacuos honors.

A two-formed poet, I will be borne through the

clear sky on wings neither slight nor

common, nor will I delay in lands

for a long time and greater than envy

I will abandon the cities. Not I, the family of

poor parents, not I, whom you send for,

dear Maecenas, I will not die

nor will I be restrained by a Stygian wave.

Now already the rough skins shrink

on my legs, and I am changed to a white bird

above, and light feathers spring forth

on my fingers and shoulders.

Now, more famous than Icarus son of Daedalus,

I, a melodious bird, will visit the shores of the

groaning Bosphorus and Syrtis and Gaetulia and

the Hyperborean fields.

The Colchians will know me, who hide their

fear of the Marsian friend, and the Dacians and the

farthest Gelonians will know me, the skilled

Spaniard and the drinker of the Rhone will hear of me.

The funeral dirges and shameful grievings and

complaints are absent from the empty funeral;

restrain the noise and dismiss the unnecessary

honors of the tomb.