Ausa et jacentem visere regiam

Vultu sereno, fortis et asperas

Tractare serpentes, ut atrum

Corpore combiberet venenum,

Deliberata morte ferocior;

Sævis Liburnis scilicet invidens

Privata deduci superbo

Non humilis mulier triumpho.

Ode XXXVIII.-TO HIS SLAVE.

Boy, I tell you that I hate
Persian pomp and Persian state:
Little pleasure can I find

In chaplets knit with linden rind:
Seek not then with prying fingers
For me the rose which latest lingers;
To the myrtle, simply fair,

Give, I beg, no laboured care:

Still the myrtle grace is lending

You, upon my wants attending,

And me beseems, who drink my wine,

Stretched beneath a bowery vine.

Carmen XXXVIII.-AD PUERUM.

Persicos odi, puer apparatus,

Displicent nexæ philyra coronæ ;
Mitte sectari, rosa quo locorum

Sera moretur.

Simplici myrto nihil allabores Sedulus curo: neque te ministrum Dedecet myrtus, neque me sub arcta Vite bibentem.

ODES.

BOOK II.

Ode 1.-To ASINIUS POLLIO.

You all our civil broils relate
Since our Metellus' consulate,

The cause of war, its vice lay bare,
How waged, and Fortune's freaks declare;
How princes leagued for ill combine,

And how our arms unholy shine,

Still red and moistened with the flood

Of yet unexpiated blood.

And still your danger to enhance

Describe these deeds of doubtful chance,

And tell of times like fires which low
Beneath deceitful ashes glow.

But now a little while decline

To take the tragic Muse's line;
Our state restored, your talent rare
Resume, and Attic buskins wear.
Pollio! our famous advocate,

And wise adviser of the state,

Your brow with deathless laurel bound

In a Dalmatian triumph crowned!

You write, we hear the threatening horn,

The noisy trumpets clang in scorn,
Swift horses fly from armour bright

LIBER

SECUNDUS.

Carmen I.-AD ASINIUM POLLIONEM.

Motum ex Metello consule civicum
Bellique causas et vitia et modos

Ludumque Fortunæ gravesque

Principum amicitias et arma
Nondum expiatis uncta cruoribus,
Periculosæ plenum opus ales,
Tractas et incedis per ignes
Suppositos cineri doloso.

Paullum severe Musa tragoedin
Desit theatris: mox ubi publicas
Res ordinaris, grande munus
Cecropio repetes cothurno,
Insigne mæstis præsidium reis
Et consulenti, Pollio, curiæ;

Cui laurus æternos honores
Dalmatico peperit triumpho.

Jam nunc minaci murmure cornuum

Perstringis aures, jam litui strepunt ;
Jam fulgor armorum fugaces

Terret equos equitumque vultus.