Q. Horatius Flaccus

Horace (65-8 BCE)

Vides ut alta stet nive candidum

Soracte, nec iam sustineant onus

silvae laborantes, geluque

flumina constiterint acuto.

See how the deep snow shines on Mount Soracte!

The toiling woods

can bear the load no longer, and the streams

stand still in the sharp ice.

Dissolve frigus ligna super foco

large reponens, atque benignius

deprome quadrimum Sabina,

O Thaliarche, merum diota.

Dispel the cold, O Thaliarchus – quick,

pile up the logs –

and bring the four-year-aged unmixed wine

out in a Sabine jar.

Permitte divis cetera; qui simul

stravere ventos aequore fervido

deproeliantis, nec cupressi

nec veteres agitantur orni.

The rest give to the gods, who, when they still

the winds at war

upon the boiling sea, leave mountain ash

and cypress trees untouched.

Quid sit futurum cras fuge quaerere, et

quem fors dierum cumque dabit lucro

adpone, nec dulcis amores

sperne puer neque tu choreas,

Don’t ask about tomorrow. Take what comes,

and count it gain;

and in your youth don’t turn away from dance

or from sweet love affairs,

donec virenti canities abest

morosa. Nunc et campus et areae

lenesque sub noctem susurri

conposita repetantur hora;

so long as sour age stays far away

from your green strength.

Let streets and fields and soft nocturnal whispers

have their appointed times,

nunc et latentis proditor intimo

gratus puellae risus ab angulo

pignusque dereptum lacertis

aut digito male pertinaci.

and perhaps sweet hidden laughter may reveal

a prize to take

from off the arms or fingers of a girl

pretending to resist.