Tu separatis uvidus in jugis Bistonidum sine fraude crines. Tu, cùm parentis regna per arduum Unguibus, horribilique malâ : Pacis eras mediusque belli. Te vidit insons Cerberus aureo Cornu decorum, leniter atterens Caudam, et recedentis trilingui Ore pedes tetigitque crura. CARMEN XX. AD MECENATEM. 20 25 30 Eternam sibi ex suis carminibus famam pot licetur. NON usitatâ, nec* tenui ferar Pennâ, biformis per liquidum æthera Vates; neque in terris morabor Longiùs; invidiâque major Urbes relinquam. Non ego pauperum Sanguis parentum; non ego, quem vocas Dilecte, Mæcenas, obibo, Nec Stygiâ cohibebor undâ. Jam jam residunt cruribus asperæ * Non tenui ferar. 5 10 moist with wine, in selected mountains, bind the hair of your Thracian priestesses with a knot of vipers, without hurt. You, when the impious band of giants scaled the realms of father Jupiter, through the sky repelled Rhotus, with the paws and horrible jaw of the lion-shape you had assumed. Though reported to be better adapted for dances, and jokes, and play, you were accounted insufficient for fight; yet it then appeared you had the same common talent for peace and war. Thee, ornamented with thy golden horn, Cerberus innocently gazed at, gently wagging his tail, and with his triple tongue licked your feet and legs as you returned. ODE XX. TO MAECENAS. He promises himself eternal fame from his verses. I, a two-formed poet, will be conveyed through the liquid air with no vulgar nor humble wing: nor will I loiter upon earth any longer; and, superior to envy, will I quit cities. Not I, even I, whom my rivals style the blood of low parents, my dear Mæcenas, shall die; nor will I be restrained by the Stygian wave. At this instant, a rough skin settles upon my ankles, and all upwards I am transformed into a white bird,* and the downy plu * The poets allegorically represented themselves as transformed into swans. * Supernè; nascunturque leves Ales, Hyperboreosque campos. Me Colchus, et, qui dissimulat metum Discet Iber, Rhodanique potor. Superna. Dædalco tutior Icaro. Benti. 15 20 nage arises over my fingers and shoulders. Now, having become a melodious bird, more expedi. tious than the Dædalean Icarus, I will visit the shores of the murmuring Bosphorus, and the Getulean Syrtes, and the Hyperborean plains. Me, the Colchan, and the Dacian who pretends not to fear the Marsian cohort, and the remotest Gelonians, shall know: me, the learned Spaniard shall study, and he that drinks the waters of the Rhone. Let there be no dirges, or shameful lamentation, or bewailings, at my only seeming funeral: suppress your crying, and forbear the superfluous honours of a sepulchre. Q. HORATII FLACCI CARMINUM LIBER III. CARMEN I. Felicitatem in honoribus ac divitiis positam non esse. ODI profanum vulgus, et arceo. Virginibus puerisque canto. Regum timendorum in proprios greges, Cuncta supercilio moventis. 5 |