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Premant* Calenâ falce, quibus dedit
Fortuna, vitem: divest et aureis
Mercator exsiccet culullis

Vina Syrâ reparata merce,

Dîs carus ipsis: quippe ter et quater
Anno revisens æquor Atlanticum
Impune. Me pascunt olivæ,

Me cichorea, levesque malvæ.

Frui paratis et valido mihi,
Latoë, dones; et, precor, integrâ
Cum mente, nec turpem senectam
Degere, nec citharâ carentem.

CARMEN XXXII.

AD LYRAM.

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Rogatus seculare carmen scribere, lyram suam precatur Horatius ut cantus argumento pares sibi suggerat.

POSCIMUS. Si quid vacui sub umbrâ
Lusimus tecum, quod et hunc in annum

Vivat, et plures; age, dic Latinum,

Barbite, carmen,

Lesbio primùm modulate civi :

Qui ferox bello, tamen inter arma,

Sive jactatam religârat udo

Littore navim;

Liberum et Musas, Veneremque, et illi
Semper hærentem puerum canebat,
Et Lycum nigris oculis nigroque
Crine decorum.

* Premant Calenâ. Bentl. Poscimur-vacui sub antro.

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Dives ut aureis.

Let those, to whom fortune has given the Calenian vineyards, prune them with a hooked knife: and let the wealthy merchant drink, out of golden cups, the wines procured by his Syrian merchandise, favoured by the Gods themselves, for as much as without loss he visits three or four times a-year the Atlantic sea. Me olives support, me succories and emollient mallows. O thou son of Latona, grant me to enjoy my acquisitions, and to have my health, together with an unimpaired understanding, I beseech thee; and that I may not lead a dishonourable old age, nor one deprived of a taste for music.

ODE XXXII.

TO HIS LYRE.

Being desired to write a secular ode, Horace invokes his lyre to assist him with strains equal to the subject.

WE are now called upon. If in idle amusement in the shade with you, we have played any thing that may live for this year and many, come on, assist me with a lyric ode in Latin, my dear lyre,first tuned in Greek by the Lesbian citizen Alcaus : who, fierce in war, yet amidst arms, or if he had made fast to the watery shore his tossed vessel, sung Bacchus and the muses, and Venus, and the boy her ever close attendant, and Lycus, lovely for his black eyes and jetty locks. thou ornament

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O decus Phœbi, et dapibus supremi
Grata testudo Jovis, ô laborum
Dulce lenimen, mihi* cunque salve
Ritè vocanti.

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CARMEN XXXII.

AD ALBIUM TIBULLUM.

Solatur eum aliorum exemplo, qui amantes non redamentur.

ALBI, ne doleas plus nimio, memor

Immitis Glyceræ, neu miserabiles

Decantes elegos, cur tibi junior

Læsâ præniteat fide.

Insignem tenui fronte Lycorida
Cyri torret amor: Cyrus in asperam
Declinat Pholoën: sed priùs Appulis
Jugentur capreæ lupis,

Quam turpi Pholoë peccet adultero.
Sic visum Veneri; cui placet impares
Formas atque animos sub juga ahenea
Sævo mittere cum joco.

Ipsum me melior cum peteret Venus,
Gratâ detinuit compede Myrtale
Libertina, fretis acrior Adriæ

Curvantis Calabros sinus.

* Mihi, cuique, salve, Bentl.

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of Apollo, charming shell, agreeable even at the banquets of supreme Jupiter! O thou sweet alleviator of anxious toils, be propitious to me, whenever I duly invoke thee.

ODE XXXIII.

TO ALBIUS TIBULLUS.

He endeavours to comfort him, by instancing others who were in love without a mutual return.

GRIEVE not too much, my Albius, thoughtful of cruel Glycera; nor chant your mournful elegies, because, having forfeited her faith, a younger man is more agreeable than you in her eyes. Bekold, a love for Cyrus inflames Lycoris, distinguished for her delicate little forehead :* Cyrus follows the rough-spun Pholoe; but she-goats shall sooner be united to the Apulian wolves, than Pholoe shall commit a crime with a base adulterer. Such is the will of Venus, who delights in cruel sport to subject to her brazen yokes, persons and tempers ill-suited to each other. As for myself, the slaveborn Myrtale, more untractable than the Adriatic sea, that forms the Calabrian gulfs, entangled me in a pleasing chain, at the very time a more eligible love courted my embraces.

*The ancients thought a small forehead a great beauty, and the ladies affected it in their dress.

CARMEN XXXIV.

Fictâ Palinodiâ Deorum providentiam prorsus

evertit.

PARCUS Deorum cultor et infrequens,

Insanientis dum sapientiæ

Consultus erro; nunc retrorsum

Vela dare, atque iterare cursus
Cogor* relictos. Namque Diespiter,
Igni corusco nubila dividens

Plerumque, per purum tonantes
Egit equos volucremque currum ;
Quo bruta tellus, et vaga flumina,
Quo Styx, et invisi horrida Tænari
Sedes, Atlanteusque finis

Concutitur. Valet ima summis
Mutare, et † insignem attenuat Deus,
Obscura promens: hinc apicem rapax
Fortuna cum stridore acuto

Sustulit; hîc posuisse gaudet.

Cogor relectos. Heins.

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+ Insignia attenuat.

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