CARMEN SECULARE.

Phoebe silvarumque potens Diana,

Lucidum cœli decus, o colendi

Semper et culti, date, quæ precamur
Tempore sacro,

Quo Sibyllini monuere versus
Virgines lectas puerosque castos
Dîs, quibus septem placuere colles,
Dicere carmen.

Alme Sol, curru nitido diem qui
Promis et celas, aliusque et idem
Nasceris, possis nihil urbe Roma
Visere majus.

Rite maturos aperire partus

Lenis, Ilithyia, tuere matres,

Sive tu Lucina probas vocari

Seu Genitalis.

Diva, producas sobolem patrumque
Prosperes decreta super jugandis

Feminis prolisque novæ feraci

Lege marita.

After a hundred years and ten are told,
Again may these three days of fair delights
Come round with songs and pastimes as of old,
As many pleasant nights.

And you, ye Fates, who evermore declare
The truth pronounced, the voice of destiny,
Grant that the future equal good may bear
To past prosperity.

May earth, in corn and cattle fruitful, give
Ceres a coronal of ears of wheat,
May gales from heaven make all germens live,
May waters pure and sweet.

Whilst hid your arrows, ever gentle, kind,
Our supplicating youth, Apollo, hear,
And you, the queen of stars, may virgins find,
Two-horned Diana, near.

Through you if Rome arose and Trojan men
Italia won and oracles obeyed,

Changing their household gods and city when

Their happy voyage they made;

And good Æneas, in his patriot heart,

Thoughtless of self, prepared an open way
By which from flaming Troy, they might depart
More rich than those who stay.

Grant to our youth, ye gods, all mortal health,
To our declining years, ye gods, grant rest,
And may the race of Romulus in wealth,

Fame, offspring, all be blest.

Certus undenos decies per annos
Orbis ut cantus referatque ludos
Ter die claro totiesque grata
Nocte frequentes.

Vosque veraces cecinisse, Parcæ,

Quod semel dictum est stabilisque rerum
Terminus servat, bona jam peractis
Jungite fata.

Fertilis frugum pecorisque Tellus
Spicea donet Cererem corona;
Nutriant fetus et aquæ salubres
Et Jovis auræ,

Condito mitis piacidusque telo
Supplices audi pueros, Apollo;
Siderum regina bicornis, audi,
Luna, puellas:

Roma si vestrum est opus, Iliæque
Litus Etruscum tenuere turmæ,
Jussa pars mutare lares et urbem
Sospite cursu,

Cui

per ardentem sine fraude Trojam Castus Æneas patriæ superstes Liberum munivit iter daturus

Plura relictis:

Dî, probos mores docili juventæ,
Dî, senectuti placida quietem,

Romulæ genti date remque prolemque
Et decus omne!

Ode XXIII. TO PHIDYLE.

If you to Heaven your palms have spre
When first the new moon shines,
And pleased your rural gods with this
Whilst frankincense its odours shed,
And the greedy sow hath bled
My rustic Phidyle!

Your fertile vines exempt will be

From Afric's baneful wind,

Your corn no blight shall find,
Your darling lambs shall no bad weat
When Autumn's fruits appear.
The victim vowed on Algidus snow-
Fed amidst groves of ilex and of oal
Or perhaps on Mount Albanus' past
With blood from his neck's wound
Will stain the high priest's knif
stroke.

But

you I have little need To make sheep largely ble For your Penates, crown With rosemary and tend For if with innocent hand you The altar, you, the household With sacred cake shall better Than if some costly victim's