Odes

Horace

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

  • Now glows the Ethiop maiden's sire;
  • Now Procyon rages all ablaze;
  • The Lion maddens in his ire,
  • As suns bring back the sultry days:
  • The shepherd with his weary sheep
  • Seeks out the streamlet and the trees,
  • Silvanus' lair: the still banks sleep
  • Untroubled by the wandering breeze.
  • You ponder on imperial schemes,
  • And o'er the city's danger brood:
  • Bactrian and Serian haunt your dreams,
  • And Tanais, toss'd by inward feud.
  • The issue of the time to be
  • Heaven wisely hides in blackest night,
  • And laughs, should man's anxiety
  • Transgress the bounds of man's short sight.