Odes

Horace

Horace. The Odes and Carmen Saeculare of Horace. Conington, John, translator. London: George Bell and Sons, 1882.

  • For you Sicilian heifers low,
  • Bleat countless flocks; for you are neighing
  • Proud coursers; Afric purples glow
  • For your arraying
  • With double dyes; a small domain,
  • The soul that breathed in Grecian harping,
  • My portion these; and high disdain
  • Of ribald carping.
  • Why rend my heart with that sad sigh?
  • It cannot please the gods or me
  • That you, Maecenas, first should die,
  • My pillar of prosperity.
  • Ah! should I lose one half my soul
  • Untimely, can the other stay
  • Behind it? Life that is not whole,
  • Is that as sweet? The self-same day
  • Shall crush us twain; no idle oath
  • Has Horace sworn; whene'er you go,
  • We both will travel, travel both
  • The last dark journey down below.