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| {{TextQuality|75%}}{{header
| | {{header |
| |author=Horace | | |author=Horace |
| |title=[[The Odes]] | | |title=[[The Odes]] |
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| |previous=[[The Odes/Book III|Book III]] | | |previous=[[The Odes/Book III|Book III]] |
| |section= Book IV | | |section= Book IV |
| |notes=Translated by [[A. S. Kline]] | | |notes= |
| }} | | }} |
| | __NOEDITSECTION__ |
| | __TOC__ |
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| <div class="verse"> | | <div class="verse"> |
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|
| | | === Book IV === |
| #[[The Odes/Book IV/1|Venus, be Merciful]] | | #[[The Odes/Book IV/1|Venus, be Merciful]] |
| #[[The Odes/Book IV/2|Augustus’s Return]] | | #[[The Odes/Book IV/2|Augustus’s Return]] |
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| #[[The Odes/Book IV/8|Poetry]] | | #[[The Odes/Book IV/8|Poetry]] |
| #[[The Odes/Book IV/9|Lollius]] | | #[[The Odes/Book IV/9|Lollius]] |
| === BkIV:X Age ===
| | #[[The Odes/Book IV/10|Age]] |
| | | #[[The Odes/Book IV/11|Maecenas’ Birthday]] |
| | | #[[The Odes/Book IV/12|Spring]] |
|
| | #[[The Odes/Book IV/13|You too, Lyce]] |
| O you who are cruel still, and a master of Venus’s gifts,
| | #[[The Odes/Book IV/14|Drusus and Tiberius]] |
| | | #[[The Odes/Book IV/15|To Augustus]] |
| when a white, unexpected plumage surmounts all your arrogance,
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| and the tresses that wave on your shoulders have all been shorn away,
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| and the colour that now outshines the flower of the crimson rose
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| is transformed, my Ligurinus, and has changed into roughened skin:
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| whenever you look at your altered face in the mirror, you’ll say:
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| ‘Why didn’t I have, when I was a youth, the mind I have today,
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| or why can’t those untouched cheeks return to visit this soul of mine?’
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| === BkIV:XI Maecenas’ Birthday ===
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| I’ve a jar of Alban wine over nine years
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| old: and there’s parsley for weaving your garlands,
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| in the garden, Phyllis, and see, there’s a huge
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| amount of ivy,
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| with which you shine whenever it ties your hair:
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| the house gleams with silver: the altar is wreathed
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| with pure vervain, and waits to be stained with blood,
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| a sacrificed lamb:
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| All hands are scurrying: here and there, a crowd
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| of boys and girls are running, and see the flames
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| are flickering, sending the sooty smoke rolling
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| high up in the air.
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| And so that you know to what happiness you’re
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| invited, it’s the Ides that are the reason,
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| they’re the days that divide the month of April,
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| of sea-born Venus,
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| it’s truly a solemn day for me, and more
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| sacred to me almost than my own birthday,
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| because from that morning Maecenas reckons
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| the flow of his years.
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| A rich, an impudent, young girl has captured
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| Telephus, one you desire, and who’s above
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| your station, and holds him prisoner, fettered
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| with beautiful chains.
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|
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| Scorched Phaethon’s a warning to hope’s ambition,
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| and winged Pegasus offered a harsh example
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| in refusing his back to Bellerephon,
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| his earthly rider:
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| always pursue what’s appropriate for you,
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| consider it wrong to hope for what isn’t
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| allowed, for someone who isn’t your equal.
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| Come now, my last love,
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| (since I’ll burn for no other woman after
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| you) learn verses you’ll repeat in your lovely
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| voice: the darkest of cares will be lessened
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| by means of your song.
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| === BkIV:XII Spring ===
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| Now Spring’s companions, the Thracian northerlies,
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| that quieten the ocean, are swelling the canvas:
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| now fields are unfrozen, and rivers stop roaring
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| with their volumes of winter snow.
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| The sad swallow, tearfully mourning Itys, builds | |
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| her nest, she’s the House of Cecrops’ eternal shame,
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| avenging the barbarous lust of Tereus
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| with too savage a cruelty.
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| The shepherds, with indolent sheep, in the soft grass,
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| sing their songs to the sound of the pipes, and delight
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| great god, Pan, who is pleased with the flocks, and is pleased
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| by the dark hills of Arcady.
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| And, Virgil, the season has brought its thirst to us:
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| but if you’re eager to sip at a grape that was pressed
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| at Cales, you follower of noble youth, then
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| earn your wine with a gift of nard.
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| One small onyx box of nard elicits a jar
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| that’s lying there now in Sulpicius’ cellar,
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| sufficient for granting fresh hope, and effective
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| at washing away bitter care.
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| If you’re in a rush for pleasures like this, come quick
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| with your purchase: since I refuse to consider
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| dipping a gift-less you, in my wine, as if I’m
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| rich, my house filled with everything.
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| But abolish delay, and desire for profit,
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| and, remembering death’s sombre flames, while you can,
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| mix a little brief foolishness with your wisdom:
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| it’s sweet sometimes to play the fool.
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| === BkIV:XIII You too, Lyce ===
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| Lyce, the gods have heard my prayers, the gods have
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| heard me, Lyce: you’re growing old, but still desire
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| the power of beauty, and still
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| you play, and drink quite shamelessly,
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| and, drunk, you urge dull Cupid on with tremulous
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| singing. He’s keeping watch on the beautiful cheeks
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| of Chia the young and fresh,
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| who’s expert at playing the harp.
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| For he flies disdainfully past the withered oak,
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| and he runs away from you, since you’re disfigured
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| by those now yellowing teeth,
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| those wrinkles, and that greying hair.
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| Now gowns of Coan purple, and those expensive
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| jewels, won’t bring back time, that the passage of days
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| has shut away, and buried,
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| a matter of public record.
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| Where’s Venus fled, alas, and beauty? And where now
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| are your graceful gestures? What is left of that girl,
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| that girl who once breathed of love,
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| who stole me away from myself,
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| happy when Cinara had vanished, and famous
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| for your looks and your charming ways? The Fates granted
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| Cinara the briefest years,
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| preserving Lyce, endlessly,
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| to suffer as long a life as an ancient crow,
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| so that the burning youths with many a ripple
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| of laughter, are here to gaze
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| at a fire that’s fallen to ashes.
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| === BkIV:XIV Drusus and Tiberius ===
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| What care the Citizens and the Senators
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| shall take in immortalising your virtues,
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| granting you full honours, Augustus,
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| with titles and memorial plaques, O,
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| greatest of princes, wherever the sun shines
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| over the countries where people can live, you,
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| whose power in war the Vindelici
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| free of our Roman laws, till now, have learnt.
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| For, with your army, brave Drusus, demolished
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| the Genauni, that implacable race, in more
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| direct retaliation, the swift
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| Breuni, and their defences, established
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| on the formidable Alpine heights: and soon
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| Tiberius, the elder Nero, entered | |
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| that fierce fight, with his favourable
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| omens, defeating the wild Rhaetians:
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| it was wonderful to see with what destruction,
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| in contesting the war, he exhausted those minds
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| intent on the deaths of our freemen,
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| as the south wind, almost, when it troubles
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| the ungovernable waves, while the Pleiades’
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| constellation pierces the clouds, he was eager
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| to attack the hostile ranks, and drive
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| his neighing horse through the midst of their fire.
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| As, bull-like, the Aufidus rolls on, flowing
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| by the domains of Apulian Daunus,
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| when it rages and threatens fearful
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| destruction to their cultivated fields,
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| so Tiberius overwhelmed the armoured
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| ranks of barbarians, his fierce impetus
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| covering the earth, mowing down front
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| and rear, and conquering them without loss,
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| yours the troops, the strategy and the friendly
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| gods. For on that date when Alexandria
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| opened all its harbour, and empty
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| palaces to you, in supplication,
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| good Fortune, fifteen years later, delivered
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| a favourable outcome to the campaign,
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| and awarded fame, and the glory
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| hoped-for, to your imperial action.
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| The Spaniards, never conquered before, the Medes, | |
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| the Indians, marvel at you, the roving
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| Scythians, O eager protector
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| of Italy and Imperial Rome.
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| The Nile, that conceals its origin, hears you,
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| the Danube hears, and the swift-flowing Tigris,
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| the Ocean, filled with monsters, roaring
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| around the distant island of Britain,
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| and the regions of Gaul, unafraid of death,
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| and the stubborn Iberian land, hear you:
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| Sygambri, delighting in slaughter,
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| stand, with grounded weapons, worshipping you.
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| === BkIV:XV To Augustus ===
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| Phoebus condemned my verse, when I tried to sing
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| of war and conquered cities, lest I unfurled
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| my tiny sail on Tyrrhenian
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| seas. Caesar, this age has restored rich crops
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| to the fields, and brought back the standards, at last,
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| to Jupiter, those that we’ve now recovered
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| from insolent Parthian pillars,
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| and closed the gates of Romulus’ temple,
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| freed at last from all war, and tightened the rein
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| on lawlessness, straying beyond just limits,
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| and has driven out crime, and summoned
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| the ancient arts again, by which the name
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| of Rome and Italian power grew great,
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| and the fame and majesty of our empire,
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| were spread from the sun’s lair in the west,
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| to the regions where it rises at dawn.
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| With Caesar protecting the state, no civil
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| disturbance will banish the peace, no violence,
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| no anger that forges swords, and makes
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| mutual enemies of wretched towns.
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| The tribes who drink from the depths of the Danube,
| | === Index of First Lines === |
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| will not break the Julian law, the Getae,
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| nor Seres, nor faithless Persians,
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| nor those who are born by the Don’s wide stream.
| | === Metres Used in Book IV. === |
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| On working days, and the same on holy days,
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| among laughter-loving Bacchus’ gifts to us,
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| with our wives and our children we’ll pray,
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| at first, to the gods, in the rites laid down,
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| then, in the manner of our fathers, bravely,
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| in verse, that’s accompanied by Lydian flutes,
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| we’ll sing past leaders, we’ll sing of Troy,
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| Anchises, and the people of Venus.
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| == Index of First Lines ==
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| Venus now you’ve returned again. 5
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| Iulus, whoever tries to rival Pindar,7
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| Melpomene, Muse, one whom you. 9
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| Like the winged agent of the bright lightning-bolt,10
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| Son of the blessed gods, and greatest defender13
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| God, whom Niobe’s children encountered, O.. 15
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| The snow has vanished, already the grass returns to the fields,17
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| I’d give bowls, generously, and pleasing bronzes,18
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| Don’t think that the words I speak to accompany. 19
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| O you who are cruel still, and a master of Venus’s gifts,21
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| I’ve a jar of Alban wine over nine years. 22
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| Now Spring’s companions, the Thracian northerlies,24
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| Lyce, the gods have heard my prayers, the gods have. 25
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| What care the Citizens and the Senators. 26
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| Phoebus condemned my verse, when I tried to sing. 28
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| == Metres Used in Book IV. ==
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| The number of syllables most commonly employed in each standard line of the verse is given. This may vary slightly for effect (two beats substituted for three etc.) in a given line.
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| Alcaic Strophe: 11 (5+6) twice, 9, 10
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| used in Odes: 4,9,14,15
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| Sapphic and Adonic: 11(5+6) three times, 5
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| Odes: 2,6,11
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| First Asclepiadean: 12 (6+6) all lines
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| Ode: 8
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| Second Asclepiadean: 8, 12 (6+6), alternating
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| Odes: 1,3
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| Third Asclepiadean: 12 (6+6) three times, 8
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| Odes 5,12
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| Fourth Asclepiadean: 12 (6+6) twice, 7, 8
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| Ode:13
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| Fifth Asclepiadean: 16 (6+4+6) all lines
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| Ode: 10
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| Alcmanic Strophe: 17 (7+10) or less, 11 or less, alternating
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| Odes: None in Book IV
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| First Archilochian: 17 (7+10) or less, 7 alternating
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| Ode: 7
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| Fourth Archilochian Strophe: 18 (7+11) or less, 11 (5+6) alternating
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| Odes: None in Book IV
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| Second Sapphic Strophe: 7, 15 (5+10) alternating
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| Odes: None in Book IV
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| Trochaic Strophe: 7,11 alternating
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| Odes: None in Book IV
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| Ionic a Minore: 16 twice, 8
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| Ode: None in Book IV
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| </div> | | </div> |
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| [[Category:Poetry]] | | [[Category:Poetry]] |
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