TRANSLATIONS FROM HORACE. Book I. Ode XXX. TO VENUS. OH! leave thine own loved isle, Bright Queen of Cyprus and the Paphian shores! And here on Glycera's fair temple smile, Where vows and incense lavishly she pours. Waft here thy glowing son, Bring Hermes, let the nymphs thy path surround, And youth unlovely till thy gifts be won, And the light graces with the zone unbound. Original of the foregoing. O Venus, regina Gnidi Paphique, Transfer in ædem. Fervidus tecum puer, et solutis Gratiæ zonis, properentque Nymphæ, Book I. Ode XXXVIII. TO HIS ATTENDANT. I hate the Persian's costly pride; The wreaths with bands of Linden tied; These, boy, delight me not; Nor where the lingering roses bide, Seek thou for me the spot. For me be nought but myrtle twined; The modest myrtle, meet to bind Alike thy brows and mine; While thus I quaff the bowl, reclined Beneath the o'erarching vine. Original of the foregoing. Persicos odi, puer, apparatus: Displicent nexæ philyrâ coronæ : Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum Sera moretur. Simplici myrto nihil allabores Sedulus, curo. Neque te ministrum Dedecet myrtus, neque me sub arcta Book Il. Ode III. TO DELIUS. Firm be thy soul!-serene in power, When adverse Fortune clouds the sky; Undazzled by the triumph's hour, Since, Delius, thou must die! Alike if still to grief resigned, Or if through festal days 'tis thine To quaff, in grassy haunts reclined, The old Falernian wine: Haunts where the silvery poplar-boughs Love with the pine's to blend on high, And some clear fountain brightly flows In graceful windings by. There be the rose, with beauty fraught So soon to fade, so brilliant now, There be the wine, the odours brought, While Time and Fate allow ! For thou, resigning to thine heir, Thy halls, thy bowers, thy treasured store, Must leave that home, those woodlands fair, On yellow Tyber's shore. What then avails it if thou trace Or, sprung from some ignoble race, Since the dread lot for all must leap Whence exiles ne'er return. |