Horace -- Translations into English; Latin poetry -- Translations into English
had said this, he collected in all his money on the Ides; and endeavors
to put it out again at the Calends.
* * * * *
ODE III.
TO MAECENAS.
If any person at any time with an impious hand has broken his aged
father's neck, let him eat garlic, more baneful than hemlock. Oh! the
hardy bowels of the mowers! What poison is this that rages in my
entrails? Has viper's blood, infused in these herbs, deceived me? Or has
Canidia dressed this baleful food? When Medea, beyond all the [other]
argonauts, admired their handsome leader, she anointed Jason with this,
as he was going to tie the untried yoke on the bulls: and having
revenged herself on [Jason's] mistress, by making her presents besmeared
with this, she flew away on her winged dragon. Never did the steaming
influence of any constellation so raging as this rest upon the thirsty
Appulia: neither did the gift [_of Dejanira_] burn hotter upon the
shoulders of laborious Hercules. But if ever, facetious Maecenas, you
should have a desire for any such stuff again, I wish that your girl may
oppose her hand to your kiss, and lie at the furthest part of the bed.
* * * * *
ODE IV.
TO MENAS.
As great an enmity as is allotted by nature to wolves and lambs, [so
great a one] have I to you, you that are galled at your back with
Spanish cords, and on your legs with the hard fetter. Though,
purse-proud with your riches, you strut along, yet fortune does not
alter your birth. Do you not observe while you are stalking along the
sacred way with a robe twice three ells long, how the most open
indignation of those that pass and repass turns their looks on thee?
This fellow, [say they,] cut with the triumvir's whips, even till the
beadle was sick of his office, plows a thousand acres of Falernian land,
and wears out the Appian road with his nags; and, in despite of Otho,
sits in the first rows [of the circus] as a knight of distinction. To
what purpose is it, that so many brazen-beaked ships of immense bulk
should be led out against pirates and a band of slaves, while this
fellow, this is a military tribune?
* * * * *
ODE V.
THE WITCHES MANGLING A BOY.
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