The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Three
HORACE'S ODES |
BOOK III, ODE 3 |
| Iustum et tenacem propositi virum non civium ardor prava iubentium, non vultus instantis tyranni mente quatit solida neque Auster, |
The man who is just and tenacious of his purpose neither the anger of his citizens bidding him do what is wrong nor the face of a threatening tyrant shakes from his solid determination, nor the south wind, wild emperor of the restless Adriatic, nor the mighty hand of thundering Jupiter: if the world should fall shattered, the ruins will strike him unafraid. |
| dux inquieti turbidus Hadriae, nec fulminantis magna manus Iovis: si fractus illabatur orbis, impavidum ferient ruinae. |
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| Hac arte Pollux et vagus Hercules enisus arcs attigit igneas (quos inter Augustus recumbens purpureo bibet ore nectar); |
By this virtue Pollux and
the roaming Hercules strove and attained the fiery citadels, (amongst whom Augustus shall
recline and drink nectar with rosy lips); your tigers carried you, meritorious through
this virtue, father Bacchus, drawing the yoke with indocile necks; by this virtue Romulus
escaped Acheron, (drawn) by the horses of Mars, when Juno spoke a word that found favor
with the gods in council: "Ilion, Ilion a doomed and corrupt judge and a foreign woman turned into dust -- Ilion condemned by me and the chaste Minerva, along with its people and fraudulent king ever since he, Laomedon, cheated the gods of the agreed payment. Now for the Spartan adulteress no longer shines her infamous guest nor does the perjured house of Priam any longer beat back the warrior Greeks with Hector's help, and the war, prolonged by our own quarrelling, has dies away: henceforth I shall forgive Mars both the grievous causes of my anger and that hated grandson whom the Trojan priestess bore; him I shall permit to enter the bright abodes, to drink the juices of nectar, and to be enrolled among the peaceful ranks of the gods. |
| hac te merentem, Bacche pater, tuae vexere tigres indocili iugum collo trahentes; hac Quirinus Martis equis Acheronta fugit, |
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| gratum elocuta consiliantibus Iunone divis: "Ilion, Ilion fatalis incestusque iudex et mulier peregrina vertit |
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| in pulverem, ex quo destituit deos mercede pacta Laomedon, mihi castaeque damnatum Minervae cum populo et duce fraudulento. |
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| Iam nec Lacaenae splendet adulterae famosus hospes nec Priami domus periura pugnaces Achivos Hectoreis opibus refringit, |
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| nostrisque ductum seditionibus bellum resedit: protinus et gravis iras et invisum nepotem, Troica quem peperit sacerdos, |
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| Marti redonabo; illum ego lucidas inire sedes, ducere nectaris sucos et adscribi quietis ordinibus patiar deorum. |
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| Dum longus inter saeviat Ilion Romamque pontus, qualibet exsules in parte regnanto beati; dum Priami Paridisque busto |
"As long as the sea rages wide between Ilion and Rome, let the exiles happily hold sway in whatever region they please; as long as the herd leaps over the tomb of Priam and of Paris and wild beasts conceal their young there with impunity, let the Capitol stand gleaming and let fierce Rome have the power to dictate terms to the conquered Medes. Feared everywhere, let her extend her name to the uttermost shores, where the midway water separates Europe from Africa, where the swollen Nile irrigates the fields. |
| insultet armentum et catulos ferae celent inultae, stet Capitolium fulgens triumphatisque possit Roma ferox dare iura Medis. |
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| Horrenda late nomen in ultimas extendat oras, qua medius liquor secernit Europen ab Afro, qua tumidus rigat arva Nilus. |
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| Aurum irrepertum et sic melius situm, cum terra celat, spernere fortior quam cogere humanos in usus omne sacrum rapiente dextra, |
"Stronger to despise gold, undiscovered and thus better situated when the earth conceals it, than to compel to human use everything sacred with rapacious hand, whatever limit is set to the world, this she shall touch with her weapons, eager to go and see in what part the fires rage wildly, or in what part mists and rainy dews. |
| quicumque mundo terminus obstitit, hunc tanget armis, visere gestiens, qua parte debacchentur ignes, qua nebulae pluviique rores. |
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| Sed bellicosis fata Quiritibus hac lege dico, ne nimium pii rebusque fidentes avitae tecta velint reparare Troiae; |
"But I tell their fortune to the warlike people of Rome on the condition, that they do not, over-dutifully and over- confident in their luck, seek to rebuild the houses of ancestral Troy; the fortune of Troy, reborn under an evil omen, shall be treated once again with grim disaster, as I, wife and sister of Jupiter, lead the troops to victory. Should its wall rise again three times in brass with the assistance of Phoebus, three times let it fall, cut down by my Argives, three times let the captive wife wail for her husband and sons." |
| Troiae renascens alite lugubri fortuna tristi clade iterabitur, ducente victrices catervas coniuge me Iovis et sorore. |
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| Ter si resurgat murus aeneus auctore Phoebo, ter pereat meis excisus Argivis, ter uxor capta virum puerosque ploret." |
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| Non hoc iocosae conveniet lyrae: quo, Musa, tendis? Desine pervicax referre sermones deorum et magna modis tenuare parvis. |
This will not suit my humorous lyre! Whither, Muse, are you going? Cease willfully to recall speeches of gods and demean great themes by a humble style. |