Horace -- Translations into English; Laudatory poetry, Latin -- Translations into English
And for your dames divide
On peaceful lyre the several parts of song.
I have taken feminis with divides, but it is quite possible that Orelli
may be right in constructing it with grata. The case is really one of
those noticed in the Preface, where an interpretation which would not
commend itself to a commentator may be adopted by a poetical translator
simply as a free rendering.
BOOK I, ODE 27.
Our guest,
Megilla's brother.
There is no warrant in the original for representing this person as a
guest of the company; but the Ode is equally applicable to a tavern
party, where all share alike, and an entertainment where there is a
distinction between hosts and guests.
BOOK I, ODE 28.
I have translated this Ode as it stands, without attempting to decide
whether it is dialogue or monologue. Perhaps the opinion which supposes
it to be spoken by Horace in his own person, as if he had actually
perished in the shipwreck alluded to in Book III, Ode 4, v. 27, "Me...
non exstinxit... Sicula Palinurus unda," deserves more attention than
it has received.
BOOK II, ODE 1.
Methinks I hear of leaders proud.
Horace supposes himself to hear not the leaders themselves, but
Pollio's recitation of their exploits. There is nothing weak in this,
as Orelli thinks. Horace has not seen Pollio's work, but compliments
him by saying that he can imagine what its finest passages will be
like--"I can fancy how you will glow in your description of the great
generals, and of Cato." Possibly "Non indecoro pulvere sordidos" may
refer to the deaths of the republican generals, whom old recollections
would lead Horace to admire. We may then compare Ode 7 of this Book, v.
11--
"Cum fracta virtus, et minaces
Turpe solum tetigere mento,"
where, as will be seen, I agree with Ritter, against Orelli, in
supposing death in battle rather than submission to be meant, though
Horace, writing from a somewhat different point of view, has chosen
there to speak of the vanquished as dying ingloriously.
BOOK II, ODE 3.
Where poplar pale and pine-tree high.
I have translated according to the common reading "Qua pinus ... et
obliquo," without stopping to inquire whether it is sufficiently
supported by MSS. Those who with Orelli prefer "Quo pinus ... quid
obliquo," may substitute--
Know you why pine and poplar high
Their hospitable shadows spread
Entwined? why panting waters try
To hurry down their zigzag bed?
BOOK II, ODE 7.
A man of peace.
Quiritem is generally understood of a citizen with rights undiminished.
I have interpreted it of a civilian opposed to a soldier, as in the
well-known story in Suetonius (Caes. c. 70), where Julius Caesar takes
the tenth legion at their word, and intimates that they are disbanded
by the simple substitution of Quirites for milites in his speech to
them. But it may very well include both.
BOOK II, ODE 13.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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