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Horace, Ode 2-14

  Latin English
  Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,

labuntur anni, nec pietas moram

rugis et instanti senectae

adferet indomitaeque morti,

Alas, Postumus, Postumus, the fleeting

years are slipping by, and devotion will

not delay wrinkles, the onslaught

of old age, and unconquered death,

5 non si trecenis quotquot eunt dies,

amice, places inlacrimabilem

Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum

Geryonen Tityonque tristi

not even, [my] friend, if you try each

day to please dry-eyed Pluto with three

hundred [slaughtered] bulls. He keeps

Geryon and Tityos in check

10 compescit unda, scilicet omnibus,

quicumque terrae munere uescimur,

enauiganda, siue reges

siue inopes erimus coloni.

behind the gloomy stream, which must be crossed

in very truth by all of us who feed on the

bounty of the earth, whether we are

kings or penniless sharecroppers.

15 Frustra cruento Marte carebimus

fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,

frustra per autumnos nocentem

corporibus metuemus Austrum.

In vain will we flee bloody Mars

and the broken waves of the hoarse Adriatic sea,

in vain each autumn will we avoid

the south wind which harms [our] bodies.

20 Visendus ater flumine languido

Cocytus errans et Danai genus

infame damnatusque longi

Sisyphus Aeolides laboris.

You must face the dark Cocytus river,

which meanders with sluggish flow,

and Danaus’ accursed race and Aeolus’

son Sisyphus, condemned to endless toil.

  Linquenda tellus et domus et placens

uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum

te praeter inuisas cupressos

ulla breuem dominum sequetur.

You must leave earth, home, and affectionate

wife. None of those trees which you’re

tending will accompany you (their short-lived

master), except for the hated cypresses.

25 Absumet heres Caecuba dignior

seruata centum clauibus et mero

tinguet pauimentum superbo,

pontificum potiore cenis.

Your heir, more worthy [than you], will use up

your Caecuban wines, kept under a hundred locks;

he will spill on the floor the proud wine,

better than [that served] at high priests’ feasts.