Ovid: EX PONTO

Accipe, Pompei, deductum carmen ab illo
       debitor est uitae qui tibi, Sexte, suae.
Qui seu non prohibes a me tua nomina poni,
       accedet meritis haec quoque summa tuis,
siue trahis uultus, equidem peccasse fatebor,

Receive, Pompey, a drawn-out poem from him
       who is a debtor of his life to you, Sextus.
Qui, if you do not forbid your names to be set by me,
       this sum too will accede to your merits,
or if you pull a face, indeed I will confess to have sinned,

       delicti tamen est causa probanda mei.
Non potuit mea mens quin esset grata teneri:
       sit precor officio non grauis ira pio.
O, quotiens ego sum libris mihi uisus ab istis
       inpius, in nullo quod legerere loco!

       nevertheless the cause of my delict must be proved.
My mind could not but be held grateful:
       let, I pray, anger not be heavy upon pious duty.
O, how often have I seemed to myself, by those books,
       impious, because you were read in no place!

O, quotiens, alii uellem cum scribere, nomen
       rettulit in ceras inscia dextra tuum!
Ipse mihi placuit mendis in talibus error
       et uix inuita facta litura manu est.
'Viderit ad summam, dixi, licet ipse queratur!

O, how often, when I wished to write of another, the unknowing right hand brought back your name onto the wax tablets!
The error itself in such faults pleased me,
and the erasure was made with my hand scarcely unwilling.
'Let him see to it in the end,' I said, 'though he himself may complain!'

       a! pudet offensam non meruisse prius.'
Da mihi, si quid ea est, hebetantem pectora Lethen,
       oblitus potero non tamen esse tui,
idque sinas, oro, nec fastidita repellas
       uerba nec officio crimen inesse putes,

       ah! I am ashamed not to have earlier merited offense.'
Give me, if there is any such thing, a Lethe dulling the bosom,
       I shall not, however, be able to be forgetful of you,
and allow this, I beg, nor repel the words as though disdained,
       nor think that a crime is present in the office of devotion,

et leuis haec meritis referatur gratia tantis;
       si minus, inuito te quoque gratus ero.
Numquam pigra fuit nostris tua gratia rebus
       nec mihi munificas arca negauit opes.
Nunc quoque nil subitis clementia territa fatis

and let this light gratitude be rendered for such great merits;
       if not, I too shall be grateful even with you unwilling.
Never was your favor sluggish for my affairs,
       nor did the coffer deny me munificent resources.
Now also your clemency, not at all terrified by sudden fates,

       auxilium uitae fertque feretque meae.
Vnde, rogas forsan, fiducia tanta futuri
       sit mihi? Quod fecit, quisque tuetur opus.
Vt Venus artificis labor est et gloria Coi,
       aequoreo madidas quae premit imbre comas,

       brings and will bring aid to my life.
Whence, you perhaps ask, is so great a confidence of the future mine,
       to me? He who made the work, each one protects it.
As Venus is the labor and the glory of the Coan artificer,
       who presses her tresses, drenched with the sea’s shower,

arcis ut Actaeae uel eburna uel aerea custos
       bellica Phidiaca stat dea facta manu,
uindicat ut Calamis laudem quos fecit equorum,
       ut similis uerae uacca Myronis opus,
sic ego sum rerum non ultima, Sexte, tuarum

as the warlike goddess, guardian of the Actaean citadel, whether ivory or bronze, stands, made by Phidian hand,
as Calamis claims praise for the horses he made,
as the cow, a work of Myron, is like the real thing,
so I am not the least of your things, Sextus,

tutelaeque feror munus opusque tuae.

and I am reputed the gift and the work of your tutelage.

II. SEVERO

2. TO SEVERUS

Quod legis, o uates magnorum maxime regum,
       uenit ab intonsis usque, Seuere, Getis,
cuius adhuc nomen nostros tacuisse libellos,
       si modo permittis dicere uera, pudet.
Orba tamen numeris cessauit epistula numquam

What you read, O vates, greatest of great kings,
       has come all the way from the unshorn Getae, Severus,
of whom to have kept your name silent in my little books until now,
       if only you permit me to speak true things, I am ashamed.
Yet the letter, though bereft of numbers, has never ceased

       ire per alternas officiosa uices.
Carmina sola tibi memorem testantia curam
       non data sunt: quid enim quae facis ipse darem?
Quis mel Aristaeo, quis Baccho uina Falerna,
       Triptolemo fruges, poma det Alcinoo?

       to go through in alternate, dutiful turns.
Poems alone, bearing witness to mindful care for you,
       have not been given: for what, which you yourself do, should I give?
Who to Aristaeus honey, who to Bacchus Falernian wines,
       to Triptolemus grain, to Alcinous fruits would give?

Fertile pectus habes interque Helicona colentes
       uberius nulli prouenit ista seges.
Mittere ad hunc carmen frondes erat addere siluis.
       Haec mihi cunctandi causa, Seuere, fuit.
Nec tamen ingenium nobis respondet ut ante,

You have a fertile breast, and among those cultivating Helicon
       to no one does this crop come forth more abundantly.
To send a song to this man was to add leaves to the woods.
       This was my cause of delaying, Severus.
Nor yet does my genius respond to me as before,

       sed siccum sterili uomere litus aro.
Scilicet ut limus uenas excaecat in undis
       laesaque subpresso fonte resistit aqua,
pectora sic mea sunt limo uitiata malorum
       et carmen uena pauperiore fluit.

       but I plough the shore with a dry, sterile ploughshare.
Surely as mud blinds the veins in the waters
       and, the spring suppressed, the injured water is held back,
so my heart is vitiated by the mud of evils
       and the song flows from a poorer vein.

Si quis in hac ipsum terra posuisset Homerum,
       esset, crede mihi, factus et ille Getes.
Da ueniam fasso, studiis quoque frena remisi
       ducitur et digitis littera rara meis.
Inpetus ille sacer qui uatum pectora nutrit,

If someone had placed Homer himself in this land,
       he would, believe me, have been made a Getan too.
Grant pardon to one confessing; I have also loosened the reins on my studies,
       and even the letter is rare, guided by my fingers.
That sacred impetus which nourishes the hearts of poets,

       qui prius in nobis esse solebat, abest.
Vix uenit ad partes, uix sumptae Musa tabellae
       inponit pigras paene coacta manus,
paruaque, ne dicam scribendi nulla uoluptas
       est mihi nec numeris nectere uerba iuuat,

       who formerly used to be in us, is absent.
Hardly does it come to its part; hardly does the Muse, the tablets having been taken up,
       almost compelled, set my sluggish hands upon them,
and a small— not to say no—pleasure in writing is mine,
       nor does it delight me to weave words to numbers (metres),

siue quod hinc fructus adeo non cepimus ullos,
       principium nostri res sit ut ista mali,
siue quod in tenebris numerosos ponere gestus
       quodque legas nulli scribere carmen idem est:
excitat auditor studium laudataque uirtus

whether because from this we have reaped absolutely no fruits,
       so that this affair be the beginning of our ill,
or because to set numerous gestures in the dark
       and to write a poem for no one to read is the same thing:
the auditor rouses zeal, and praised virtue

       crescit et inmensum gloria calcar habet.
Hic mea cui recitem nisi flauis scripta Corallis
       quasque alias gentes barbarus Hister habet?
Sed quid solus agam quaque infelicia perdam
       otia materia subripiamque diem?

       glory grows and has an immense spur.
Here to whom should I recite my writings except to the blond Coralli
       and what other peoples the barbarous Hister has?
But what shall I do alone, and with what material shall I waste my unhappy leisure
       and steal away the day?

Nam quia nec uinum nec me tenet alea fallax
       per quae clam tacitum tempus abire solet
nec me—quod cuperem, si per fera bella liceret—
       oblectat cultu terra nouata suo,
quid nisi Pierides, solacia frigida, restant,

For since neither wine nor the deceitful dice hold me
       through which silent time is wont to slip away secretly,
nor—what I would wish, if amid savage wars it were permitted—
       does the earth, renewed by its own cultivation, amuse me,
what except the Pierides, chilly consolations, remain,

       non bene de nobis quae meruere deae?
At tu, cui bibitur felicius Aonius fons,
       utiliter studium quod tibi cedit ama
sacraque Musarum merito cole, quodque legamus
       huc aliquod curae mitte recentis opus.

       have not the goddesses who have merited well of me done well by me?
But you, for whom the Aonian spring is drunk more felicitously,
       usefully love the study which yields to you,
and rightly cultivate the sacred rites of the Muses, and that we may read,
       send here some recent work of your fresh care.

III. AD INGRATVM

3. TO THE UNGRATEFUL

Conquerar an taceam? Ponam sine nomine crimen
       an notum qui sis omnibus esse uelim?
Nomine non utar, ne commendere querela,
       quaeraturque tibi carmine fama meo.
Dum mea puppis erat ualida fundata carina,

Shall I complain or keep silent? Shall I set down the crime without a name
       or would I wish who you are to be known to all?
I will not use the name, lest you be commended by the complaint,
       and lest fame be sought for you by my song.
While my ship was founded on a strong keel,

       qui mecum uelles currere primus eras.
Nunc, quia contraxit uultum Fortuna, recedis,
       auxilio postquam scis opus esse tuo.
Dissimulas etiam nec me uis nosse uideri
       quisque sit audito nomine Naso rogas.                     10
Ille ego sum, quamquam non uis audire, uetusta
       paene puer puero iunctus amicitia,
ille ego qui primus tua seria nosse solebam
       et tibi iucundis primus adesse iocis,
ille ego conuictor densoque domesticus usu,

       you who were the first to want to run with me.
Now, because Fortune has drawn her face into a frown, you withdraw,
       after you know there is need of your aid.
You even dissemble and do not wish to seem to know me,
       and, the name heard, you ask who Naso may be.                     10
I am that man, although you do not wish to hear it, by an old
       friendship almost boy to boy joined,
I, the one who first was accustomed to know your serious matters,
       and first to be present to you at pleasant jests,
I, your convivial companion and intimate by close domestic usage,

       ille ego iudiciis unica Musa tuis,
ille ego sum qui nunc an uiuam, perfide, nescis,
       cura tibi de quo quaerere nulla fuit.
Siue fui numquam carus, simulasse fateris,
       seu non fingebas, inueniere leuis.

       I, I who was the unique Muse in your judgments,
I, I am the one whom now, whether I live, faithless one, you do not know,
       for whom to inquire was no concern to you.
Whether I was never dear, you confess you simulated,
       or if you were not feigning, you are found inconstant.

Aut age, dic aliquam quae te mutauerit iram.
Nam nisi iusta tua est, iusta querela mea est.
Quod te nunc crimen similem uetat esse priori?

Or come, tell some reason which has changed your anger.
For unless yours is just, my complaint is just.
What charge now forbids you to be like your former self?

An crimen, coepi quod miser esse, uocas?
Si mihi rebus opem nullam factisque ferebas,

Or do you call it a crime that I began to be miserable?
If you were bearing no aid to me in my affairs and by your deeds,

uenisset uerbis charta notata tribus.
Vix equidem credo, sed et insultare iacenti
te mihi nec uerbis parcere fama refert.
Quid facis, a! demens?

had a page come marked with three words.
I scarcely indeed believe it, but also to insult me as I lie prostrate
report relates that you do not spare me even in words.
What are you doing, ah! demented one?

Cur, si Fortuna recedat,
naufragio lacrimas eripis ipse tuo?

Why, if Fortune should recede,
do you yourself snatch tears by your own shipwreck?

Haec dea non stabili quam sit leuis orbe fatetur,
       quae summum dubio sub pede semper habet.
Quolibet est folio, quauis incertior aura.
       Par illi leuitas, improbe, sola tua est.
Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo

This goddess confesses how light she is by a not-stable orb,
       who always has the summit beneath her doubtful foot.
She is more uncertain than any leaf, than any breeze whatsoever.
       Only your levity, shameless one, is equal to her.
All things of men are hanging by a thin thread

et subito casu quae ualuere ruunt.
Diuitis audita est cui non opulentia Croesi?
Nempe tamen uitam captus ab hoste tulit.

and by sudden chance the things that have been strong collapse.
To whom has the opulence of wealthy Croesus not been heard?
Indeed, nonetheless, captured by the enemy, he bore away his life.

Ille Syracosia modo formidatus in urbe
uix humili duram reppulit arte famem.

He, lately feared in the Syracusan city,
scarcely repelled hard famine by humble art.

Quid fuerat Magno maius? Tamen ille rogauit
       submissa fugiens uoce clientis opem,
cuique uiro totus terrarum paruit orbis
       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Ille Iugurthino clarus Cimbroque triumpho,

What had been greater than Magnus? Yet he, fleeing,
       in a subdued voice begged the help of a client,
the man to whom the whole orb of lands obeyed—
       . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
He, famous for the Jugurthine and Cimbrian triumph,

       quo uictrix totiens consule Roma fuit,
in caeno Marius iacuit cannaque palustri
       pertulit et tanto multa pudenda uiro.
Ludit in humanis diuina potentia rebus
       et certam praesens uix feret hora fidem.

       under whose consulship Rome was so often a victress,
in the mud Marius lay, and with a marsh-reed
       he bore many shameful things for so great a man.
The divine potency plays in human affairs,
       and the present hour will scarcely bear certain credence.

'Litus ad Euxinum' si quis mihi diceret 'ibis
       et metues arcu ne feriare Getae',
'I, bibe' dixissem 'purgantes pectora sucos
       quicquid et in tota nascitur Anticyra.'
Sum tamen haec passus nec, si mortalia possem,                     55
       et summi poteram tela cauere dei.
Tu quoque fac timeas et quae tibi laeta uidentur,
       dum loqueris, fieri tristia posse puta.

'To the Euxine shore,' if someone had said to me, 'you will go
       and you will fear lest you be struck by the bow of a Getan,'
'Go, drink,' I would have said, 'the juices that purge the breast,
       and whatever is produced in all Anticyra.'
Yet I have suffered these things; nor—if I could avoid mortal ones—                     55
       could I have shunned the missiles of the highest god.
You too make sure to fear, and suppose that the things which seem joyful to you,
       while you speak, can turn sad.

IV. SEX. POMPEIO

4. TO SEXTUS POMPEIUS

Nulla dies adeo est australibus umida nimbis,
       non intermissis ut fluat imber aquis;
nec sterilis locus ullus ita est, ut non sit in illo
       mixta fere duris utilis herba rubis.
Nil adeo fortuna grauis miserabile fecit

No day is so wet with austral rain-clouds,
       that a shower flows with waters not intermitted;
nor is any place so sterile, that there is not in it
       some useful herb, for the most part mixed with hard briars.
Grievous Fortune has made nothing so miserable

       ut minuant nulla gaudia parte malum.
Ecce domo patriaque carens oculisque meorum,
       naufragus in Getici litoris actus aquas,
qua tamen inueni uultum diffundere causa
       possim fortunae nec meminisse meae.

       so that no joys diminish the evil in any part.
Behold, bereft of home and fatherland and of the eyes of my own,
       shipwrecked, driven into the waters of the Getic shore,
where yet I have found a cause to brighten my countenance
       and not to remember my fortune.

Nam mihi cum fulua solus spatiarer harena,
       uisa est a tergo penna dedisse sonum.
Respicio nec erat corpus quod cernere possem,
       uerba tamen sunt haec aure recepta mea:
'En ego laetarum uenio tibi nuntia rerum,                     15
       Fama per inmensas aere lapsa uias:
consule Pompeio, quo non tibi carior alter,
       candidus et felix proximus annus erit!'
Dixit et, ut laeto Pontum rumore repleuit,
       ad gentes alias hinc dea uertit iter,

For as I was alone strolling on the tawny sand,
       there seemed from behind a wing to have given a sound.
I look back, and there was not a body that I could discern,
       yet these words were received by my ear:
'Lo, I, Fame, the nuncia of gladsome things, come to you,                     15
       having glided through the air along immeasurable ways:
with Pompeius as consul, than whom no other is dearer to you,
       the next year will be bright and fortunate!'
She spoke and, as she filled the Pontus with joyful rumor,
       the goddess turned her course from here to other nations,

at mihi dilapsis inter noua gaudia curis
       excidit asperitas huius iniqua loci.
Ergo ubi, Iane biceps, longum reseraueris annum
       pulsus et a sacro mense December erit,
purpura Pompeium summi uelabit honoris,

but for me, as my cares slipped away amid new joys,
       the iniquitous asperity of this place fell from mind.
Therefore when, two-headed Janus, you will have unbarred the long year
       and December will have been driven from the sacred month,
the purple of the highest honor will veil Pompey,

       ne titulis quicquam debeat ille suis.
Cernere iam uideor rumpi paene atria turba
       et populum laedi deficiente loco
templaque Tarpeiae primum tibi sedis adiri
       et fieri faciles in tua uota deos,

       so that he may owe nothing to his own titles.
I seem already to see the atria almost bursting with the crowd,
       and the people harmed as space runs short,
and the temples of the Tarpeian seat first being approached for you,
       and the gods becoming favorable to your vows,

colla boues niueos certae praebere securi,
       quos aluit campis herba Falisca suis,
cumque deos omnes, tum quos inpensius aequos
       esse tibi cupias, cum Ioue Caesar erunt.
Curia te excipiet patresque e more uocati

that snow-white oxen present their necks to the sure axe,
       whom the Faliscan herbage has nourished in its own fields,
and that, together with all the gods, those whom you more earnestly desire
       to be favorable to you will be—Caesar with Jove.
The Curia will receive you, and the Fathers summoned according to custom

       intendent aures ad tua uerba suas.
Hos ubi facundo tua uox hilarauerit ore,
       utque solet, tulerit prospera uerba dies
egeris et meritas superis cum Caesare grates
       —qui causam, facias cur ita saepe, dabit!—,                     40
inde domum repetes toto comitante senatu
       officium populi uix capiente domo.
Me miserum, turba quod non ego cernar in illa
       nec poterunt istis lumina nostra frui!

       they will incline their ears to your words.
When your voice, with eloquent mouth, shall have cheered these men,
       and, as it is wont, the day shall have borne prosperous words,
you will have rendered deserved thanks to the gods above together with Caesar
       —who will give a reason why you should do it so often!—,                     40
thence you will return home with the whole senate accompanying,
       with your house scarcely able to contain the people’s dutiful attendance.
Alas, wretched me, that I am not to be seen in that crowd,
       nor will my eyes be able to enjoy those sights!

Quod licet, absentem qua possum mente uidebo;

What is permitted, though absent, I will see with my mind as I can;

       aspiciet uultus consulis illa sui.
Di faciant aliquo subeat tibi tempore nostrum
       nomen et 'Heu!' dicas 'quid miser ille facit?'
Haec tua pertulerit si quis mihi uerba, fatebor
       protinus exilium mollius esse meum.

       she will behold the visage of her consul.
May the gods bring it about that at some time my name occur to you
       and you say, 'Alas! what is that wretch doing?'
If anyone shall have carried through these your words to me, I will confess
       straightway that my exile is milder.

V. SEX. POMPEIO

5. TO SEXTUS POMPEIUS

Ite, leues elegi, doctas ad consulis aures
       uerbaque honorato ferte legenda uiro.
Longa uia est nec uos pedibus proceditis aequis
       tectaque brumali sub niue terra latet.
Cum gelidam Thracen et opertum nubibus Haemum

Go, light elegies, to the learned ears of the consul
       and bear words to be read to the honored man.
The way is long, nor do you advance with equal feet
       and the earth, with its roofs, lies hidden beneath brumal snow.
When icy Thrace and Haemus covered with clouds

       et maris Ionii transieritis aquas,
luce minus decima dominam uenietis in Vrbem,
       ut festinatum non faciatis iter.
Protinus inde domus uobis Pompeia petatur:
       non est Augusto iunctior ulla foro.

       and when you have crossed the waters of the Ionian sea,
by less than the tenth light you will come to your mistress in the City,
       so that you do not make a hurried journey.
Straightway from there, let the Pompeian house be sought by you:
       there is none closer to the Forum of Augustus.

Si quis, ut in populo, qui sitis et unde requiret,
       nomina decepta quaelibet aure ferat.
Vt sit enim tutum, sicut reor esse, fateri
       uera, minus certe ficta timoris habent.
Copia nec uobis nullo prohibente uidendi

If anyone, as in a crowd, should ask who you are and whence,
       let him bear to his ear whatever deceptive names.
For granted that it is safe, as I think it is, to confess
       the truths, fictions assuredly have less of fear.
Nor is there a lack for you, with no one prohibiting, of seeing

       consulis, ut limen contigeritis, erit:
aut reget ille suos dicendo iura Quirites,
       conspicuum signis cum premet altus ebur,
aut populi reditus positam componet ad hastam
       et minui magnae non sinet urbis opes,

       it will be the consul’s, once you have touched the threshold:
or he will rule his Quirites by declaring the law,
       when, exalted, he presses the ivory conspicuous with insignia,
or he will settle the people’s revenues at the spear set up
       and he will not allow the wealth of the great city to be diminished,

aut, ubi erunt patres in Iulia templa uocati,
       de tanto dignis consule rebus aget,
aut feret Augusto solitam natoque salutem
       deque parum noto consulet officio
tempus et his uacuum Caesar Germanicus omne

or, when the Fathers shall have been called into the Julian temples,
       he will conduct business about matters so great, worthy of a consul,
or he will bear the accustomed salutation to Augustus and to his son
       and will take counsel concerning an office too little known
and Caesar Germanicus will have all time vacant for these things

       auferet: a magnis hunc colit ille deis.
Cum tamen a turba rerum requieuerit harum,
       ad uos mansuetas porriget ille manus
quidque parens ego uester agam fortasse requiret.
       Talia uos illi reddere uerba uolo:

       will take it away: he honors this man along with the great gods.
Yet when he has rested from the throng of these affairs,
       to you he will stretch forth his gentle hands
and perhaps he will ask what I, your parent, should do.
       Such words I want you to return to him:

'Viuit adhuc uitamque tibi debere fatetur
       quam prius a miti Caesare munus habet.
Te sibi, cum fugeret, memori solet ore referre
       barbariae tutas exhibuisse uias.
Sanguine Bistonium quod non tepefecerit ensem,

'He lives still and confesses that he owes his life to you
       which earlier he holds as a gift from mild Caesar.
He is wont with mindful speech to recall of you, when he was fleeing,
       that you provided safe routes through the barbarian land.
because you did not warm with blood the Bistonian sword,

       effectum cura pectoris esse tui.
Addita praeterea uitae quoque multa tuendae
       munera, ne proprias attenuaret opes.
Pro quibus ut meritis referatur gratia, iurat
       se fore mancipii tempus in omne tui.

       that it was effected by the care of your heart.
Moreover, many gifts also were added for sustaining his life,
       lest he attenuate his own resources.
For which deserts, that gratitude may be returned, he swears
       that he will be your bondman for all time.

Nam prius umbrosa carituros arbore montes
       et freta ueliuolas non habitura rates
fluminaque in fontes cursu reditura supino
       gratia quam meriti possit abire tui.'
Haec ubi dixeritis, seruet sua dona rogate!

For sooner will the mountains be about to lack a shady tree,
       and the straits be without sail-swift ships,
and the rivers return to their fountains with an up-sloping course,
       than the favor for your merit could depart.'
When you have said these things, ask that she preserve her gifts!

Sic fuerit uestrae causa peracta uiae.

Thus may the cause of your journey be accomplished.

VI. BRVTO

6. TO BRUTUS

Quam legis, ex illis tibi uenit epistula, Brute,
Nasonem nolles in quibus esse locis,
sed tu quod nolles, uoluit miserabile fatum.
Ei mihi! plus illud quam tua uota ualet.

The epistle which you read has come to you, Brutus,
from those places in which you would not wish Naso to be,
but what you would not wish, the pitiable Fate has willed.
Alas for me! That avails more than your vows.

In Scythia nobis quinquennis olympias acta est;                     5
       iam tempus lustri transit in alterius.
Perstat enim Fortuna tenax uotisque malignum
       opponit nostris insidiosa pedem.
Certus eras pro me, Fabiae laus, Maxime, gentis,
       numen ad Augustum supplice uoce loqui.

In Scythia for us a five‑year Olympiad has been spent;                     5
       now the time of a lustrum passes into another.
For Fortune persists, tenacious, and, malign to our prayers,
       insidious, she sets a foot against our wishes.
You were resolute for me, Maximus, glory of the Fabian gens,
       to address the numen of Augustus with a suppliant voice.

Occidis ante preces causamque ego, Maxime, mortis—
       nec fuero tanti!—me reor esse tuae.
Iam timeo nostram cuiquam mandare salutem;
       ipsum morte tua concidit auxilium.
Coeperat Augustus deceptae ignoscere culpae,

You die before the prayers, and I, Maximus, think myself to be the cause of your death—       nor shall I have been worth so much!—I reckon.
       Now I fear to entrust our safety to anyone;
the very help itself has collapsed at your death.
       Augustus had begun to pardon the fault of the deceived,

       spem nostram terras deseruitque simul.
Quale tamen potui, de caelite, Brute, recenti
       uestra procul positus carmen in ora dedi.
Quae prosit pietas utinam mihi sitque malorum
       iam modus et sacrae mitior ira domus!

       and our hope deserted the lands at the same time.
Yet such as I could, about the recent heaven-dweller, Brutus,
       set far from you all I put a song upon your lips.
Would that there be for me that piety which may profit, and that there now be a limit
       of evils, and a gentler ire of the sacred house!

Te quoque idem liquido possum iurare precari,
       o mihi non dubia cognite Brute nota.
Nam cum praestiteris uerum mihi semper amorem,
       hic tamen aduerso tempore creuit amor,
quique tuas pariter lacrimas nostrasque uideret

You too I can clearly swear that I pray the same for,
       O Brutus, to me known by no doubtful mark.
For since you have ever exhibited to me true love,
       yet this love grew in an adverse time,
and one who would see your tears and mine alike

       passuros poenam crederet esse duos.
Lenem te miseris genuit natura nec ulli
       mitius ingenium quam tibi, Brute, dedit,
ut, qui quid ualeas ignoret Marte forensi,
       posse tuo peragi uix putet ore reos.                     30
Scilicet eiusdem est, quamuis pugnare uidentur,
       supplicibus facilem, sontibus esse trucem.
Cum tibi suscepta est legis uindicta seuerae,
       uerba uelut tinctum singula uirus habent.

       would believe that two were going to suffer a penalty.
Nature bore you gentle for the wretched, nor to any
       did it give a gentler disposition than to you, Brute,
so that one who does not know how much you avail in forensic Mars,
       would scarcely think that the accused could be prosecuted by your voice.                     30
Of course it belongs to the same man, although they seem to fight,
       to be easy to suppliants, to be truculent to the guilty.
When the vengeance of the severe law has been undertaken by you,
       each single word has, as though dipped, a poison.

Hostibus eueniat quam sis uiolentus in armis

May your enemies experience how violent you are in arms

       sentire et linguae tela subire tuae
quae tibi tam tenui cura limantur ut omnes
       istius ingenium corporis esse negent.
At si quem laedi fortuna cernis iniqua,
       mollior est animo femina nulla tuo.

       to feel and to undergo the darts of your tongue
which by so fine a care are filed down for you, so that all
       deny that the genius belongs to that body of yours.
But if you see anyone harmed by iniquitous fortune,
       no woman is gentler in spirit than you.

Hoc ego praecipue sensi, cum magna meorum
       notitiam pars est infitiata mei.
Inmemor illorum, uestri non inmemor umquam
       qui mala solliciti nostra leuatis ero.
Et prius hic nimium nobis conterminus Hister

This I especially have felt, when a great part of my people
       has denied acquaintance with me.
Forgetful of those, never unmindful of you
       who, solicitous, lighten our ills, I will be.
And sooner here the Hister, too conterminous with us,

       in caput Euxino de mare uertet iter,
utque Thyesteae redeant si tempora mensae,
       Solis ad Eoas currus agetur aquas,
quam quisquam uestrum qui me doluistis ademptum
       arguat ingratum non meminisse sui.

       will turn its course from the sea into the head of the Euxine,
as if the times of Thyestean table might return,
       the Sun’s chariot will be driven to the Eoan waters,
sooner than any one of you who have grieved at my being taken away
       should charge me, ungrateful, with not remembering him.

VII. VESTALI

7. TO THE VESTAL

Missus es Euxinas quoniam, Vestalis, ad undas,
       ut positis reddas iura sub axe locis,
aspicis en praesens quali iaceamus in aruo,
       nec me testis eris falsa solere queri.
Accedet uoci per te non inrita nostrae,

Since you have been sent to the Euxine waves, Vestalis,
       to render laws to the places set beneath the axis,
behold, being present you see in what plight we lie in the field,
       nor will you be witness that I am wont to complain falsely.
Through you there will be added to our voice a force not ineffectual,

       Alpinis iuuenis regibus orte, fides.
Ipse uides certe glacie concrescere Pontum,
       ipse uides rigido stantia uina gelu;
ipse uides onerata ferox ut ducat Iazyx
       per medias Histri plaustra bubulcus aquas.

       Young man sprung from Alpine kings, a pledge of good faith.
You yourself surely see the Pontus congeal with ice,
       you yourself see the wine standing solid with rigid frost;
you yourself see how the fierce Iazyx ox-driver leads laden wagons
       through the middle waters of the Hister.

Aspicis et mitti sub adunco toxica ferro
       et telum causas mortis habere duas.
Atque utinam pars haec tantum spectata fuisset,
       non etiam proprio cognita Marte tibi!
Tendisti ad primum per densa pericula pilum,

You behold also poisons being sent beneath a hooked iron,
       and the missile to have two causes of death.
And would that this part had only been looked upon,
       not also by your own Mars made known to you!
You stretched toward the foremost pilum through dense perils,

       contigit ex merito qui tibi nuper honor.
Sit licet hic titulus plenus tibi fructibus, ingens
       ipsa tamen uirtus ordine maior erit.
Non negat hoc Hister, cuius tua dextera quondam
       puniceam Getico sanguine fecit aquam.

       the honor that lately befell you came to you by merit.
Granted though this title is full of fruits for you, vast
       yet virtue itself will be greater in order.
The Hister (Danube) does not deny this, whose your right hand once
       made crimson with Getic blood the water.

Non negat Aegisos, quae te subeunte recepta
       sensit in ingenio nil opis esse loci.
Nam, dubium positu melius defensa manune,
       urbs erat in summo nubibus aequa iugo.
Sithonio regi ferus interceperat illam

Aegisos does not deny it, which, as you were approaching, was recovered,
       felt that there was no aid of the place against ingenuity.
For it was a question whether it was defended better by position or by hand,
       the city was on the summit, its ridge equal to the clouds.
A savage foe had intercepted it from the Sithonian king

       hostis et ereptas uictor habebat opes,
donec fluminea deuecta Vitellius unda
       intulit exposito milite signa Getis.
At tibi, progenies alti fortissima Donni,
       uenit in aduersos impetus ire uiros.

       and the enemy, as victor, possessed the snatched wealth,
until Vitellius, borne down by the riverine wave,
       brought the standards against the Getae with the soldiery disembarked.
But to you, most mighty progeny of lofty Donnus,
       there came the impetus to go against opposing men.

Nec mora, conspicuus longe fulgentibus armis,
       fortia ne possint facta latere caues
ingentique gradu contra ferrumque locumque
       saxaque brumali grandine plura subis.
Nec te missa super iaculorum turba moratur

No delay, conspicuous from afar with shining arms,
       you take care that brave deeds cannot lie hidden,
and with an immense stride against both iron and place
       you undergo stones more numerous than wintry hail.
Nor does the throng of javelins hurled from above delay you

       nec quae uipereo tela cruore madent.
Spicula cum pictis haerent in casside pennis
       parsque fere scuti uulnere nulla uacat.
Nec corpus cunctos feliciter effugit ictus,
       sed minor est acri laudis amore dolor.

       nor those missiles that are drenched with viperine blood.
The little darts stick in the helmet together with painted plumes,
       and scarcely any part of the shield is free from wound.
Nor does the body successfully escape all the blows,
       but the pain is lesser than the keen love of praise.

Talis apud Troiam Danais pro nauibus Aiax
       dicitur Hectoreas sustinuisse faces.
Vt propius uentum est admotaque dextera dextrae
       resque fero potuit comminus ense geri,
dicere difficile est quid Mars tuus egerit illic

Such at Troy, for the Danaans’ ships, Ajax
       is said to have withstood the Hectorian torches.
When they came nearer and right hand was brought to right hand,
       and the matter could be carried on at close quarters with the iron sword,
it is difficult to say what your Mars accomplished there.

       quotque neci dederis quosque quibusque modis.
Ense tuo factos calcabas uictor aceruos
       inpositoque Getes sub pede multus erat.
Pugnat ad exemplum primi minor ordine pili
       multaque fert miles uulnera, multa facit.

       how many you consigned to death, whom, and by what ways.
With your sword the heaps made you, as victor, were treading,
       and many a Getan was beneath your planted foot.
The junior in rank of the primus pilus fights by the example,
       and the soldier bears many wounds, many he makes.

Sed tantum uirtus alios tua praeterit omnes
ante citos quantum Pegasus ibat equos.
Vincitur Aegisos testataque tempus in omne
sunt tua, Vestalis, carmine facta meo.

But so far does your virtue pass by all the others
as far as Pegasus went before the swift horses.
Aegisos is vanquished, and your deeds, Vestal,
are attested for all time by my song.

VIII. SVILLIO

8. TO SUILLIUS

Littera sera quidem, studiis exculte Suilli,
       huc tua peruenit, sed mihi grata tamen,
qua pia si possit superos lenire rogando
       gratia, laturum te mihi dicis opem.
Vt iam nil praestes, animi sum factus amici

A letter indeed late, Suilli, polished by studies,
       has reached here, yours, yet pleasing to me nonetheless,
in which, if a pious favor could soothe the gods above by praying,
       you say you will bear help to me.
Even if now you should render nothing, I have been made of a friend’s spirit

       debitor et meritum uelle iuuare uoco.
Inpetus iste tuus longum modo duret in aeuum,
       neue malis pietas sit tua lassa meis!
Ius aliquod faciunt adfinia uincula nobis,
       quae semper maneant inlabefacta precor.

       as a debtor, I even call the wish to aid a merit.
May this impulse of yours only endure long into the age,
       nor let your piety be wearied by my ills!
Some right the bonds of affinity create for us,
       which I pray may remain forever unshaken.

Nam tibi quae coniunx, eadem mihi filia paene est,
       et quae te generum, me uocat illa uirum.
Ei mihi, si lectis uultum tu uersibus istis
       ducis et adfinem te pudet esse meum!
At nihil hic dignum poteris reperire pudore

For the one who is wife to you is to me almost a daughter,
       and she who calls you son-in-law, calls me husband.
Alas for me, if at these chosen verses you draw your face,
       and it shames you to be my affine!
But you will be able to find nothing here worthy of shame.

       praeter Fortunam, quae mihi caeca fuit.
Seu genus excutias, equites ab origine prima
       usque per innumeros inueniemur auos;
siue uelis qui sint mores inquirere nostri,
       errorem misero detrahe, labe carent.

       except Fortune, who was blind to me.
Whether you examine my lineage, we shall be found equestrians from the very first origin
       all the way through innumerable ancestors;
or if you wish to inquire what our morals are,
       remove the error about the wretched man; they are free from stain.

Tu modo si quid agi sperabis posse precando,
       quos colis exora supplice uoce deos.
Di tibi sint Caesar iuuenis: tua numina placa!
       hac certe nulla est notior ara tibi.
Non sinit illa sui uanas antistitis umquam

You only, if you will hope that anything can be done by praying,
       entreat with a suppliant voice the gods whom you cultivate.
May the young Caesar be your gods: placate your numina!
       by this altar surely none is more familiar to you.
That one never allows the empty rites of its priest

       esse preces: nostris hinc pete rebus opem!
Quamlibet exigua si nos ea iuuerit aura,
       obruta de mediis cumba resurget aquis.
Tunc ego tura feram rapidis sollemnia flammis,
       et ualeant quantum numina testis ero.

       to be prayers: hence seek aid for our affairs!
However exiguous, if that breeze shall have helped us,
       the skiff overwhelmed will rise again from the midst of the waters.
Then I will bring incense, the solemn rites, to the rapid flames,
       and I shall be witness how much the numina avail.

Nec tibi de Pario statuam, Germanice, templum
       marmore: carpsit opes illa ruina meas.
Templa domus facient uobis urbesque beatae,
       Naso suis opibus, carmine gratus erit.
Parua quidem fateor pro magnis munera reddi,

Nor for you, Germanicus, will I set a temple-statue from Parian marble:
       that ruin has consumed my resources.
The House and fortunate cities will make temples for you,
       Naso, with his own resources, will be grateful by song.
Small gifts indeed, I confess, are rendered in return for great,

       cum pro concessa uerba salute damus.
Sed qui quam potuit dat maxima, gratus abunde est
       et finem pietas contigit illa suum.
Nec quae de parua pauper dis libat acerra,
       tura minus grandi quam data lance ualent

       since, in return for the granted safety, we give words.
But he who gives the greatest thing he could is abundantly grateful,
       and that piety has reached its end.
Nor do the incenses which a poor man libates to the gods from a small acerra (incense‑box),
       avail less than those given on a large dish

agnaque tam lactens quam gramine pasta Falisco
       uictima Tarpeios inficit icta focos.
Nec tamen officio uatum per carmina facto
       principibus res est aptior ulla uiris.
Carmina uestrarum peragunt praeconia laudum

and a ewe-lamb, as suckling as fed on Faliscan grass,
       the victim, smitten, stains the Tarpeian hearths.
nor yet is anything more apt for princely men
       than the vatic office carried out through songs.
songs carry through the proclamations of your praises

       neue sit actorum fama caduca cauent.
Carmine fit uiuax uirtus expersque sepulcri
       notitiam serae posteritatis habet.
Tabida consumit ferrum lapidemque uetustas
       nullaque res maius tempore robur habet.

       and they take care that the fame of deeds not be perishable.
By song virtue becomes long‑lived and free from the sepulcher
       and holds the notice of late posterity.
Wasting old age consumes iron and stone
       and nothing has greater strength than time.

Scripta ferunt annos: scriptis Agamemnona nosti
       et quisquis contra uel simul arma tulit.
Quis Thebas septemque duces sine carmine nosset
       et quicquid post haec, quicquid et ante fuit?
Di quoque carminibus, si fas est dicere, fiunt

Writings carry through the years: by writings you know Agamemnon
       and whoever bore arms against him or together with him.
Who would have known Thebes and the seven leaders without song
       and whatever after these, whatever also was before?
Even the gods too are made by poems, if it is lawful to say so.

       tantaque maiestas ore canentis eget.
Sic Chaos ex illa naturae mole prioris
       digestum partes scimus habere suas;
sic adfectantes caelestia regna Gigantes
       ad Styga nimbifero uindicis igne datos;

       and such great majesty needs the mouth of the singer.
Thus Chaos, out of that mass of prior Nature,
       we know, having been set in order, to have its own parts;
thus the Giants aspiring to the celestial kingdoms
       were given over to Styx by the cloud-bearing fire of the Avenger;

sic uictor laudem superatis Liber ab Indis,
       Alcides capta traxit ab Oechalia,
et modo, Caesar, auum, quem uirtus addidit astris,
       sacrarunt aliqua carmina parte tuum.
Si quid adhuc igitur uiui, Germanice, nostro

thus the victor Liber drew praise from the Indians he had subdued,
       Alcides drew it from captured Oechalia,
and just now, Caesar, your grandsire, whom virtue added to the stars,
       some part has hallowed in song.
If therefore anything still of life, Germanicus, of our

       restat in ingenio, seruiet omne tibi.
Non potes officium uatis contemnere uates:
       iudicio pretium res habet ista tuo.
Quod nisi te nomen tantum ad maiora uocasset,
       gloria Pieridum summa futurus eras.

       it remains in your genius; all will serve you.
You, a poet, cannot contemn the office of the poet:
       by your judgment this thing has its price.
Which, unless your very name had called you to greater things,
       you would have been the highest glory of the Pierides.

Sed dare materiam nobis quam carmina maius,
       nec tamen ex toto deserere illa potes.
Nam modo bella geris, numeris modo uerba coerces,
       quodque aliis opus est, hoc tibi lusus erit.
Vtque nec ad citharam nec ad arcum segnis Apollo est,

But to furnish material to us is something greater than poems,
       and yet you cannot wholly desert those.
For now you wage wars, now you coerce words into meters,
       and what is work for others, this will be play for you.
And as Apollo is sluggish neither at the cithara nor at the bow,

       sed uenit ad sacras neruus uterque manus,
sic tibi nec docti desunt nec principis artes,
       mixta sed est animo cum Ioue Musa tuo.
Quae quoniam nec nos unda submouit ab illa,
       ungula Gorgonei quam caua fecit equi,

       but both strings come to your sacred hands,
thus for you neither the learned nor the arts of the prince are lacking,
       but the Muse is mingled in your mind with Jove.
Since the wave has not driven us away from that one,
       which the hoof of the Gorgonian horse hollowed out,

prosit opemque ferat communia sacra tueri
       atque isdem studiis inposuisse manum.
Litora pellitis nimium subiecta Corallis
       ut tandem saeuos effugiamque Getas,
clausaque si misero patria est, ut ponar in ullo

may it be of benefit and bring help to protect our common sacred rites
       and to have laid a hand upon the same studies.
The shores too subjected to the pelt-clad Coralli
       so that at last I may escape the savage Getae,
and if the fatherland is closed to wretched me, that I may be set down anywhere

       qui minus Ausonia distat ab urbe loco,
unde tuas possim laudes celebrare recentes
       magnaque quam minima facta referre mora.
Tangat ut hoc uotum caelestia, care Suilli,
       numina, pro socero paene precare tuo.

       who in place is less distant from the Ausonian city,
whence I may be able to celebrate your recent lauds
       and to relate great deeds with the least delay.
So that this vow may touch the celestial numina, dear Suillius,
       pray for your almost father-in-law.

IX. GRAECINO

9. TO GRAECINUS

Vnde licet, non unde iuuat, Graecine, salutem
       mittit ab Euxinis hanc tibi Naso uadis
missaque, di faciant, auroram occurrat ad illam
       bis senos fascis quae tibi prima dabit,
ut, quoniam sine me tanges Capitolia consul

From where it is permitted, not from where it pleases, Graecinus, a greeting
       Naso sends this to you from the Euxine shallows;
and may the gods grant that, once sent, it run to meet that dawn
       which, the very first, will give to you the twelve fasces,
so that, since without me you will touch the Capitol as consul

       et fiam turbae pars ego nulla tuae,
in domini subeat partis et praestet amici
       officium iusso littera nostra die.
Atque, ego si fatis genitus melioribus essem
       et mea sincero curreret axe rota,                     10
quo nunc nostra manus per scriptum fungitur, esset
       lingua salutandi munere functa tui
gratatusque darem cum dulcibus oscula uerbis
       nec minus ille meus quam tuus esset honor.
Illa, confiteor, sic essem luce superbus

       and I would become no part of your crowd,
let my letter step into the master’s part and render a friend’s office
       on the day commanded.
And if I had been born to better fates,
       and my wheel were running on a sound axle,                     10
that which now our hand performs by writing would have been
       performed by my tongue in the office of saluting you;
and gladly I would give kisses with sweet words,
       and that honor would be no less mine than yours.
On that day, I confess, I would thus be proud in the light.

ut caperet fastus uix domus ulla meos,
dumque latus sancti cingit tibi turba senatus,
consulis ante pedes ire iuberer eques
et, quamquam cuperem semper tibi proximus esse,
gauderem lateris non habuisse locum

so that scarcely any house would contain my pride,
and while the throng of the sacred senate girds your side,
I, a knight, would be ordered to go before the consul’s feet
and, although I should desire always to be nearest to you,
I would rejoice not to have had a place at your side

nec querulus, turba quamuis eliderer, essem,
       sed foret a populo tum mihi dulce premi.
Prospicerem gaudens quantus foret agminis ordo
       densaque quam longum turba teneret iter,
quoque magis noris quam me uulgaria tangant,

nor would I be querulous, although I were crushed by the crowd,
       but it would then be sweet for me to be pressed by the people.
I would look out, rejoicing, how great the order of the procession would be
       and how a dense crowd would occupy a long route,
and, that you may know all the more how common things touch me,

       spectarem qualis purpura te tegeret.
Signa quoque in sella nossem formata curuli
       et totum Numidi sculptile dentis opus.
At cum Tarpeias esses deductus in arces,
       dum caderet iussu uictima sacra tuo,

       I would look at what sort of purple covered you.
I would also come to know the emblems fashioned on your curule seat,
       and the whole carved work of Numidian ivory.
But when you had been conducted to the Tarpeian citadels,
       while by your order the sacred victim fell,

me quoque secreto grates sibi magnus agentem
       audisset media qui sedet aede deus
turaque mente magis plena quam lance dedissem
       ter quater imperii laetus honore tui.
Hic ego praesentes inter numerarer amicos,                     35
       mitia ius Vrbis si modo fata darent,
quaeque mihi sola capitur nunc mente uoluptas,
       tunc oculis etiam percipienda foret.
Non ita caelitibus uisum est, et forsitan aequis.

me too, in secret, giving thanks to him, the great,
       the god who sits in the middle of the temple would have heard;
and I would have given incense with a mind more full than the platter,
       thrice and four times glad at the honor of your imperium.
Here I would be counted among present friends,                     35
       if only the Fates would grant the gentle right of the City,
and the pleasure which now is taken by my mind alone,
       then would also be to be perceived by the eyes.
Not so did it seem to the celestials, and perhaps justly.

Nam quid me poenae causa negata iuuet?

For what does a denial help me, being the cause of my penalty?

Mente tamen, quae sola loco non exulat, utar,
       praetextam fasces aspiciamque tuos.
Haec modo te populo reddentem iura uidebit
       et se secretis finget adesse tuis,
nunc longi reditus hastae subponere lustri

Yet my mind, which alone is not exiled from place, I shall use,
       the praetexta and your fasces I shall behold.
This will now see you rendering justice to the people
       and will imagine itself to be present at your secret councils,
now to place under the spear the revenues of the long lustrum

       credet et exacta cuncta locare fide,
nunc facere in medio facundum uerba senatu
       publica quaerentem quid petat utilitas,
nunc pro Caesaribus superis decernere grates
       albaue opimorum colla ferire boum.

       will believe, and to place all things exacted on trust,
now to speak eloquent words in the midst of the senate,
       inquiring what the public utility seeks,
now to decree thanks on behalf of the Caesars on high,
       and to strike the white necks of well-fed oxen.

Atque utinam, cum iam fueris potiora precatus,
       ut mihi placetur principis ira roges!
Surgat ad hanc uocem plena pius ignis ab ara
       detque bonum uoto lucidus omen apex!
Interea, qua parte licet, ne cuncta queramur,

And would that, when you have now prayed for the more important things,
       that you would ask that the Princeps’s wrath be appeased for me!
May pious fire rise, full, from the altar at this utterance
       and may the bright apex give a good omen to the vow!
Meanwhile, so far as it is permitted, let us not complain of everything,

       hic quoque te festum consule tempus agam.
Altera laetitiae est nec cedens causa priori:
       successor tanti frater honoris erit.
Nam tibi finitum summo, Graecine, Decembri
       imperium Iani suscipit ille die,

       Here too I will keep the festive time with you as consul.
There is another cause of joy, not yielding to the former:
       your brother will be the successor of so great an honor.
For when it is concluded for you, Graecinus, at the close of December,
       he takes up the rule of Janus on that day,

quaeque est in uobis pietas, alterna feretis
       gaudia, tu fratris fascibus, ille tuis.
Sic tu bis fueris consul, bis consul et ille,
       inque domo binus conspicietur honor.
Qui quamquam est ingens et nullum Martia summo

and, in accordance with the pietas that is in you, you will bear alternating
       joys: you at your brother’s fasces, he at yours.
Thus you will have been consul twice, and he twice consul,
       and in the household a double honor will be beheld.
Which, although it is immense, and Martial Rome to none at the very highest

       altius imperium consule Roma uidet,
multiplicat tamen hunc grauitas auctoris honorem
       et maiestatem res data dantis habet.
Iudiciis igitur liceat Flaccoque tibique
       talibus Augusti tempus in omne frui.

       Rome sees the imperium loftier with you as consul,
yet the gravity of the author multiplies this honor,
       and the thing given holds the majesty of the giver.
Therefore, in the courts, let it be permitted for Flaccus and for you
       to enjoy for all time such judgments of Augustus.

Quod tamen ab rerum cura propiore uacabit,
       uota, precor, uotis addite uestra meis,
et si quem dabit aura sinum, iactate rudentis,
       exeat e Stygiis ut mea nauis aquis.
Praefuit his, Graecine, locis modo Flaccus et illo

Whatever time, however, will be free from a nearer care of affairs,
       add, I pray, your vows to my vows,
and, if the breeze grants any haven, cast the cables,
       that my ship may go forth from Stygian waters.
Flaccus has just presided over these places, Graecinus, and by him

       ripa ferox Histri sub duce tuta fuit.
Hic tenuit Mysas gentis in pace fideli,
       hic arcu fisos terruit ense Getas.
Hic raptam Troesmin celeri uirtute recepit
       infecitque fero sanguine Danuuium.

       the ferocious bank of the Hister was safe under its leader.
Here he held the Mysian peoples in faithful peace,
       here he terrified the Getae, who trusted in the bow, with the sword.
Here he recovered Troesmis, once seized, by swift valor,
       and he stained the Danube with savage blood.

Quaere loci faciem Scythicique incommoda caeli
       et quam uicino terrear hoste roga,
sintne litae tenues serpentis felle sagittae,
       fiat an humanum uictima dira caput,
mentiar, an coeat duratus frigore Pontus

Ask the face of the place and the Scythic inconveniences of the sky
       and ask how I am terrified by the neighboring enemy,
whether the thin arrows are anointed with serpent’s gall,
       whether a dire victim become a human head,
am I lying, or does the Pontus, hardened by cold, freeze together

       et teneat glacies iugera multa freti.
Haec ubi narrarit, quae sit mea fama require,
       quoque modo peragam tempora dura roga.
Non sumus hic odio nec scilicet esse meremur,
       nec cum fortuna mens quoque uersa mea est.

       and that ice holds many acres of the strait.
When he has told these things, inquire what my fame is,
       and by what mode I carry through the hard times ask.
We are not here through hatred, nor to be sure do we deserve to be,
       nor has my mind also been turned with my fortune.

Illa quies animi quam tu laudare solebas,
       ille uetus solito perstat in ore pudor.
Sic ego sum longe, sic hic, ubi barbarus hostis
       ut fera plus ualeant legibus arma facit,
rem queat ut nullam tot iam, Graecine, per annos

That quiet of mind which you were accustomed to praise,
       that old modesty persists upon my accustomed lips.
Thus I am far away, thus here, where the barbarian foe
       makes it so that, like a wild beast, arms prevail more than laws,
so that, Graecinus, through so many years now one can accomplish no matter at all

       femina de nobis uirue puerue queri.
Hoc facit ut misero faueant adsintque Tomitae,
       haec quoniam tellus testificanda mihi est.
Illi me, quia uelle uident, discedere malunt,
       respectu cupiunt hic tamen esse sui.

       that neither woman nor man nor boy complain about me.
This causes the Tomitans to favor me and to be present in support,
       since this land is to be my witness.
They, because they see that I wish it, prefer me to depart,
       yet out of regard for themselves they desire that I be here.

100

Nec mihi credideris: extant decreta quibus nos
       laudat et inmunes publica cera facit.
Conueniens miseris et quamquam gloria non sit,
       proxima dant nobis oppida munus idem.
Nec pietas ignota mea est: uidet hospita terra

Do not believe me: there exist decrees by which the public wax praises us and makes us immune, that is, exempt.
Fitting for the wretched, and although it is no glory, the neighboring towns grant us the same favor.
Nor is my piety unknown: the hospitable land sees it.

105

       in nostra sacrum Caesaris esse domo.
Stant pariter natusque pius coniunxque sacerdos,
       numina iam facto non leuiora deo.
Neu desit pars ulla domus, stat uterque nepotum,
       hic auiae lateri proximus, ille patris.

       that in our house there is a sacred shrine of Caesar.
The pious son and the spouse, a priest, stand together,
       their divine powers now in fact no lighter than a god.
And lest any part of the household be missing, each of the grandsons stands—
       this one nearest his grandmother’s side, that one his father’s.

110

His ego do totiens cum ture precantia uerba,
       Eoo quotiens surgit ab orbe dies.
Tota, licet quaeras, hoc me non fingere dicet
       officii testis Pontica terra mei.
Pontica me tellus, quantis hac possumus ara,

These precatory words I give so often with incense,
       as often as the day rises from the Eastern orb.
All the Pontic land, if you ask, will say that I do not feign this
       the witness of my duty.
The Pontic land, for me, with as great an altar as we can here,

115

       natalem ludis scit celebrare dei.
Nec minus hospitibus pietas est cognita talis,
       Misit in has si quos longa Propontis aquas.
Is quoque quo Laeuus fuerat sub praeside Pontus
       audierit frater forsitan ista tuus.

       knows to celebrate the natal day of the god with games.
Nor is piety of such a kind less known to guests,
       if the long Propontis has sent any into these waters.
He too, under whom Laevus was praeses of Pontus,
       perhaps your brother may have heard these things.

120

Fortuna est inpar animo talique libenter
       exiguas carpo munere pauper opes.
Nec uestris damus haec oculis procul Vrbe remoti,
       contenti tacita sed pietate sumus.
Et tamen haec tangent aliquando Caesaris aures:

Fortune is unequal to my spirit, and being such I gladly pluck
       meager wealth by the gift of poverty.
Nor do we present these things to your eyes, far from the City removed,
       but we are content with tacit piety.
And yet these will at some time touch Caesar’s ears:

125

       nil illi toto quod fit in orbe latet.
Tu certe scis haec, superis adscite, uidesque,
       Caesar, ut est oculis subdita terra tuis,
tu nostras audis inter conuexa locatus
       sidera, sollicito quas damus ore, preces.

       nothing that is done in the whole orb lies hidden from him.
You surely know these things, admitted to the supernal gods, and you see,
       Caesar, how the earth is subjected to your eyes,
you, placed among the convex stars, hear our prayers
       which we offer with solicitous lips.

130

Perueniant istuc et carmina forsitan illa
quae de te misi caelite facta nouo!
Auguror his igitur flecti tua numina nec tu
inmerito nomen mite Parentis habes.

May those songs perhaps reach thither as well
which I sent about you, composed when you were a new celestial!
I augur, therefore, that by these your divine powers are swayed, nor do you
undeservedly bear the gentle name of Parent.

X. ALBINOVANO

10. TO ALBINOVANUS

Haec mihi Cimmerio bis tertia ducitur aestas
       litore pellitos inter agenda Getas.
Ecquos tu silices, ecquod, carissime, ferrum
       duritiae confers, Albinouane, meae?
Gutta cauat lapidem, consumitur anulus usu,

This sixth summer is being drawn out for me on the Cimmerian shore,
       to be spent among the fur-clad Getae.
Do you supply any flints, any, dearest, iron
       to my hardness, Albinovanus?
A drop hollows the stone, a ring is consumed by use,

       atteritur pressa uomer aduncus humo.
Tempus edax igitur praeter nos omnia perdet:
       cessat duritia mors quoque uicta mea.
Exemplum est animi nimium patientis Vlixes
       iactatus dubio per duo lustra mari,

       the hooked ploughshare is worn down in pressed soil.
Time, devouring, therefore will destroy all things except us:
       even death, conquered by my hardness, stands idle.
An example of a spirit too patient is Ulysses,
       tossed on the doubtful sea through 10 years,

tempora solliciti sed non tamen omnia fati
       pertulit et placidae saepe fuere morae.
An graue sex annis pulchram fouisse Calypson
       aequoreaeque fuit concubuisse deae?
Excipit Hippotades qui dat pro munere uentos,

times of anxious fate he endured, yet not, however, all; and often there were placid delays.
       Was it grievous for six years to have cherished fair Calypso,
       and to have lain with the sea-goddess?
Hippotades receives him, who gives winds as a gift,

       curuet ut inpulsos utilis aura sinus.
Nec bene cantantis labor est audire puellas
       nec degustanti lotos amara fuit.
Hos ego qui patriae faciant obliuia sucos
       parte meae uitae, si modo dentur, emam.

       that the helpful aura may curve the driven bellies (of the sails).
Nor is it a toil to hear girls singing well,
       nor was the lotus bitter to one tasting it.
These juices which make oblivion of homeland—
       with a part of my life, if only they be given, I would buy.

Nec tu contuleris urbem Laestrygonos umquam
       gentibus obliqua quas obit Hister aqua,
nec uincet Cyclops saeuum feritate Piacchen;
       qui quota terroris pars solet esse mei?
Scylla feris trunco quod latret ab inguine monstris,

Nor should you ever compare the city of the Laestrygonians to the tribes which the oblique water of the Hister visits,
nor will the Cyclops surpass in ferocity the savage Piacchen;
nor—what fraction of my terror is he wont to be?
that Scylla barks from her trunk with feral monsters at her groin,

       Heniochae nautis plus nocuere rates.
Nec potes infestis conferre Charybdin Achaeis,
       ter licet epotum ter uomat illa fretum;
qui quamquam dextra regione licentius errant,
       securum latus hoc non tamen esse sinunt.

       The boats of the Heniochi have harmed sailors more.
Nor can you compare Charybdis to the hostile Achaeans,
       though she, thrice, may vomit the strait she has thrice drunk down;
who, although on the right-hand region they roam more licentiously,
       yet do not allow this flank to be secure.

Hic agri infrondes, hic spicula tincta uenenis,
       hic freta uel pediti peruia reddit hiems,
ut, qua remus iter pulsis modo fecerat undis,
       siccus contempta naue uiator eat.
Qui ueniunt istinc uix uos ea credere dicunt.

Here the fields are leafless, here arrowheads tinctured with venoms,
       here winter renders the straits even passable for the foot-soldier,
so that, where the oar had just made a way with the waves repelled,
       the traveler may go dry-shod, the ship despised.
Those who come from that quarter say that you scarcely believe these things.

       Quam miser est qui fert asperiora fide!
Crede tamen, nec te causas nescire sinemus
       horrida Sarmaticum cur mare duret hiems.
Proxima sunt nobis plaustri praebentia formam
       et quae praecipuum sidera frigus habent.

       How wretched is he who bears things harsher than credence!
Believe, however, nor shall we allow you to be ignorant of the causes
       why the harsh winter hardens the Sarmatian sea.
Nearest to us are those presenting the form of a wagon
       and the stars which have a preeminent cold.

Hinc oritur Boreas oraeque domesticus huic est
       et sumit uires a propiore loco.
At Notus, aduerso tepidum qui spirat ab axe,
       est procul et rarus languidiorque uenit.
Adde quod hic clauso miscentur flumina Ponto

Hence Boreas arises, and is domestic to this shore
       and takes strength from a nearer place.
But Notus, who breathes tepid from the opposite axis,
       is far off and comes more seldom and more languid.
Add that here the rivers are mingled with the enclosed Pontus

       uimque fretum multo perdit ab amne suam.
Huc Lycus, huc Sagaris Peniusque Hypanisque Calesque
       influit et crebro uertice tortus Halys
Partheniusque rapax et uoluens saxa Cynapses
       labitur et nullo tardior amne Tyras,

       and the strait loses its own force by much river-water.
Hither the Lycus, hither the Sagaris, and the Penius and the Hypanis and the Cales
       flows in, and the Halys, twisted by frequent whirlpools,
and the rapacious Parthenius and the Cynapses rolling stones
       glides, and the Tyras, slower than no river,

et tu, femineae Thermodon cognite turmae
       et quondam Graiis Phasi petite uiris,
cumque Borysthenio liquidissimus amne Dyraspes
       et tacite peragens lene Melanthus iter,
quique duas terras, Asiam Cadmique sororem,

and you too, Thermodon, known to the feminine troop
       and once sought by the Greek men, Phasis,
and, with the Borysthenian stream, most limpid, Dyraspes
       and, silently completing a gentle path, Melanthus,
and who parts two lands, Asia and Cadmus’s sister,

       separat et cursus inter utramque facit,
innumerique alii, quos inter maximus omnis
       cedere Danuuius se tibi, Nile, negat.
Copia tot laticum, quas auget, adulterat undas
       nec patitur uires aequor habere suas.                     60
Quin etiam stagno similis pigraeque paludi
       caeruleus uix est diluiturque color.
Innatat unda freto dulcis leuiorque marina est,
       quae proprium mixto de sale pondus habet.

       separates and makes a course between the two,
countless others, among whom the greatest of all,
       the Danube, refuses to yield himself to you, Nile.
The abundance of so many waters, which it augments, adulterates the waves
       and does not allow the sea to have its own powers.                     60
Nay even, like to a pond and to a sluggish marsh,
       the cerulean color scarcely exists and is washed out.
A fresh wave floats upon the strait and is lighter than the sea,
       which has its own weight from mingled salt.

Si roget haec aliquis cur sint narrata Pedoni

If someone should ask why these things have been narrated to Pedo

       quidue loqui certis iuuerit ista modis:
'Detinui, dicam, curas tempusque fefelli.
       Hunc fructum praesens attulit hora mihi.
Abfuimus solito, dum scribimus ista, dolore
       in mediis nec nos sensimus esse Getis.'

       or how it has helped to speak these things in set measures:
'I have held back, I will say, my cares, and I have beguiled the time.
       This fruit the present hour has brought me.
We were absent from our usual grief, while we were writing these things,
       nor did we sense ourselves to be among the Getae.'

At tu, non dubito, cum Thesea carmine laudes,
       materiae titulos quin tueare tuae,
quemque refers, imitere uirum: uetat ille profecto
       tranquilli comitem temporis esse fidem.
Qui quamquam est factis ingens et conditur a te

But you, I do not doubt, when you praise Theseus in song,
       do indeed uphold the titles of your material,
and the man whom you recount, imitate the man: he assuredly forbids
       that faith be the companion of a tranquil time.
Who, although he is immense in deeds and is being recorded by you

       uir tanto quanto debuit ore cani,
est tamen ex illo nobis imitabile quiddam
       inque fide Theseus quilibet esse potest.
Non tibi sunt hostes ferro clauaque domandi,
       per quos uix ulli peruius Isthmos erat,

       let the man be sung with a mouth as great as was due,
yet there is from him something imitable for us
       and in fidelity anyone can be a Theseus.
you do not have foes to be subdued by iron and club,
       through whom the Isthmus was scarcely passable to anyone,

sed praestandus amor, res non operosa uolenti.
Quis labor est puram non temerasse fidem?
Haec tibi, qui praestas indeclinatus amico,
non est quod lingua icta querente putes.

but love is to be rendered, a matter not laborious to one willing.
What labor is it not to have profaned pure faith?
These things for you, who, unbending, render it to a friend,
there is no cause to think a struck tongue is complaining.

XI. GALLIONI

11. TO GALLIO

Gallio, crimen erit uix excusabile nobis
       carmine te nomen non habuisse meo;
tu quoque enim, memini, caelesti cuspide facta
       fouisti lacrimis uulnera nostra tuis.
Atque utinam rapti iactura laesus amici

Gallio, it will be a scarcely excusable crime for us
       that my poem has not borne your name;
for you too, I remember, with your tears
       nursed our wounds made by a celestial spear-point.
And would that, hurt by the loss of a snatched-away friend

       sensisses ultra quod quererere nihil!
Non ita dis placuit, qui te spoliare pudica
       coniuge crudeles non habuere nefas.
Nuntia nam luctus mihi nuper epistula uenit
       lectaque cum lacrimis sunt tua damna meis.

       you would have felt that beyond this there was nothing about which to complain!
It did not so please the gods, who to despoil you of your chaste
       spouse, cruel as they were, did not deem it nefarious.
For an epistle, messenger of grief, came to me recently,
       and, read with tears, your losses were read with my tears.

Sed neque solari prudentem stultior ausim
       uerbaque doctorum nota referre tibi,
finitumque tuum, si non ratione, dolorem
       ipsa iam pridem suspicor esse mora.
Dum tua peruenit, dum littera nostra recurrens

But neither would I, more foolish, dare to solace the prudent,
       and to refer to you the known words of the learned,
and I suspect that your grief, if not by reason, has long since been made finite
       by delay itself.
While yours arrives, while our letter returning

       tot maria ac terras permeat, annus abit.
Temporis officium est solacia dicere certi,
       dum dolor in cursu est et petit aeger opem.
At cum longa dies sedauit uulnera mentis,
       intempestiue qui mouet illa nouat.

       through so many seas and lands it permeates, a year goes by.
It is the office of a fixed time to speak solaces,
       while grief is in its course and the ailing seeks aid.
But when a long day has assuaged the wounds of the mind,
       untimely, he who stirs them renews them.

Adde, quod—atque utinam uerum mihi uenerit omen!—
coniugio felix iam potes esse nouo.

Add, moreover—and would that a true omen has come to me!— you can now be happy in a new conjugal union.

XII. TVTICANO

12. TO TUTICANUS

Quo minus in nostris ponaris, amice, libellis,
       nominis efficitur condicione tui;
aut ego non alium prius hoc dignarer honore,
       est aliquis nostrum si modo carmen honor.
Lex pedis officio fortunaque nominis obstat

What prevents you from being placed in my little books, friend,
       is brought about by the condition of your name;
or I would not deem any other earlier worthy of this honor,
       if indeed our song is any honor at all.
The law of the foot stands in the way of the office and the fortune of your name.

       quaque meos adeas, est uia nulla, modos.
Nam pudet in geminos ita nomen scindere uersus,
       desinat ut prior hoc incipiatque minor,
et pudeat, si te, qua syllaba parte moratur,
       artius adpellem Tuticanumque uocem.

       and by whatever ways you approach my modes, there is no way.
For I am ashamed thus to split a name into twin verses,
       so that the prior ends with this and the minor begins,
and I would be ashamed, if, at the point where a syllable lingers in a part,
       I should address you more tightly and voice “Tuticanus.”

Et potes in uersum Tuticani more uenire,
       fiat ut e longa syllaba prima breuis,
aut ut ducatur quae nunc correptius exit
       et sit porrecta longa secunda mora.
His ego si uitiis ausim corrumpere nomen,

And you can come into verse in Tuticanus’s manner,
       so that the first syllable, from being long, become short,
or that the one which now issues more clipped be drawn out
       and let the second mora be stretched long.
By these faults, if I should dare to corrupt your name,

       ridear et merito pectus habere neger.
Haec mihi causa fuit dilati muneris huius,
       quod meus adiecto fenore reddet amor,
teque canam quacumque nota, tibi carmina mittam,
       paene mihi puero cognite paene puer,

       I would be laughed at, and with good cause be said to have no heart.
This was for me the cause of the delay of this gift,
       which my love will repay with interest added,
and I shall sing of you in whatever note, I shall send you songs,
       almost known to me when I was a boy, almost a boy yourself,

perque tot annorum seriem quot habemus uterque
       non mihi quam fratri frater amate minus.
Tu bonus hortator, tu duxque comesque fuisti,
       cum regerem tenera frena nouella manu.
Saepe ego correxi sub te censore libellos,

and through so long a series of years as each of us has
       a brother to me, beloved no less than to a brother.
You, a good exhorter, you were both leader and companion,
       when I guided the reins with a tender, just-new hand.
Often I corrected little books under you as censor,

       saepe tibi admonitu facta litura meo est,
dignam Maeoniis Phaeacida condere chartis
       cum te Pieriae perdocuere deae.
Hic tenor, haec uiridi concordia coepta iuuenta
       uenit ad albentis inlabefacta comas.

       often, at my admonition, an erasure was made for you,
worthy to consign the Phaeacid to Maeonian pages
       when the Pierian goddesses thoroughly taught you.
This tenor, this concord begun in green youth
       has come to whitening locks, unshaken.

Quae nisi te moueant, duro tibi pectora ferro
       esse uel inuicto clausa adamante putem.
Sed prius huic desint et bellum et frigora terrae,
       inuisus nobis quae duo Pontus habet,
et tepidus Boreas et sit praefrigidus Auster,

Which, unless they move you, I would think your breast to be enclosed with hard iron,
       or with unconquered adamant.
But sooner let both war and the cold be lacking to this land,
       the two which the Pontus has, hateful to us,
and let Boreas be tepid and let Auster be over-frigid,

       et possit fatum mollius esse meum
quam tua sint lasso praecordia dura sodali.
       Hic cumulus nostris absit abestque malis.
Tu modo per superos, quorum certissimus ille est
       quo tuus adsidue principe creuit honor,

       and may my fate be able to be gentler
than that your heart be hard to your weary comrade.
       Let this crowning burden be absent from my ills.
You only, by the gods above, of whom that one is the surest,
       under whom, as Princeps, your honor has grown continually,

effice constanti profugum pietate tuendo,
       ne sperata meam deserat aura ratem.
Quid mandem quaeris? Peream, nisi dicere uix est,
       si modo periit, ille perire potest.
Nec quid agam inuenio nec quid nolimue uelimue,

bring it about, by steadfast piety, by shielding the exile,
       lest the hoped-for breeze desert my ship.
what shall I enjoin, you ask? I would perish—it is scarcely to be said—
       if indeed he has perished, then that man can perish.
nor do I find what I should do nor what I would not wish or would wish,

       nec satis utilitas est mihi nota mea.
Crede mihi, miseros prudentia prima relinquit
       et sensus cum re consiliumque fugit.
Ipse, precor, quaeras qua sim tibi parte iuuandus
       quoque uiam facias ad mea uota uado.

       nor is my own utility sufficiently known to me.
Believe me, prudence is the first to abandon the wretched
       and sense with the means and counsel flees.
Yourself, I pray, seek in what part I am to be aided by you
       and also make a way by a ford to my wishes.

XIII. CARO

13. FLESH

O mihi non dubios inter memorande sodales,
       qui quod es, id uere, Care, uocaris, aue!
Vnde salutaris, color hic tibi protinus index
       et structura mei carminis esse potest,
non quia mirifica est, sed quod non publica certe est:

O you, to be remembered among my not-dubious companions,
       who are called, truly, what you are, Care, hail!
Whence you are hailed, this color straightway can be an index for you
       and the structure of my song can be as well,
not because it is marvelous, but because it is certainly not public:

       qualis enim cumque est, non latet esse meam.
Ipse quoque, ut titulum chartae de fronte reuellas,
       quod sit opus uideor dicere posse tuum.
Quamlibet in multis positus noscere libellis
       perque obseruatas inueniere notas.

       for whatever sort it is, it does not lie hidden that it is mine.
You yourself too, should you tear the title from the sheet’s front,
       I seem able to say which work is yours,
however placed in many little booklets to recognize you
       and to find you through the observed marks.

Prodent auctorem uires quas Hercule dignas
       nouimus atque illi quem canis ipse pares.
Et mea Musa potest proprio deprensa colore
       insignis uitiis forsitan esse suis.
Tam mala Thersiten prohibebat forma latere

The powers which we know worthy of Hercules will betray their author
       and you yourself are equal to him whom you sing.
And my Muse too can, caught by her own color,
       perhaps be conspicuous for her own vices.
So bad a form kept Thersites from lying hidden

       quam pulchra Nireus conspiciendus erat.
Nec te mirari, si sint uitiosa, decebit
       carmina quae faciam paene poeta Getes.
A! pudet et Getico scripsi sermone libellum
       structaque sunt nostris barbara uerba modis:

       how handsome Nireus was to be beheld.
Nor will it be seemly for you to wonder, if they are faulty,
       the poems which I, almost a Getic poet, compose.
Ah! I am ashamed, and I have written a little book in the Getic speech,
       and barbarous words have been structured to our measures:

et placui—gratare mihi!—coepique poetae
inter inhumanos nomen habere Getas.
Materiam quaeris? Laudes: de Caesare dixi!

and I have pleased—congratulate me!—and among the inhuman Getae I began to have the name of a poet.
You ask the subject-matter? Praises: I have spoken of Caesar!

Adiuta est nouitas numine nostra dei.
Nam patris Augusti docui mortale fuisse

Our novelty was aided by the numen of the god.
For I taught that the father of Augustus had been mortal

       corpus, in aetherias numen abisse domos,
esse parem uirtute patri qui frena rogatus
       saepe recusati ceperit imperii,
esse pudicarum te Vestam, Liuia, matrum,
       ambiguum nato dignior anne uiro,

       the body, the numen has gone away into aetherial homes,
to be equal in virtue to his father, who, when entreated,
       has taken up the reins of the often-refused imperium,
to be you, Livia, the Vesta of chaste mothers,
       ambiguous whether you are more worthy of your son or your husband,

esse duos iuuenes, firma adiumenta parentis,
       qui dederint animi pignora certa sui.
Haec ubi non patria perlegi scripta Camena,
       uenit et ad digitos ultima charta meos,
et caput et plenas omnes mouere pharetras,

that there are two young men, firm aids of their parent,
       who have given sure pledges of their spirit.
When I had read through these writings, not by a native Camena,
       even the last sheet came to my fingers,
and both the head and all the full quivers to move,

       et longum Getico murmur in ore fuit,
atque aliquis 'Scribas haec cum de Caesare' dixit
       'Caesaris imperio restituendus eras.'
Ille quidem dixit, sed me iam, Care, niuali
       sexta relegatum bruma sub axe uidet.

       and a long murmur was on the Getic mouth,
and someone said, 'You should write these when about Caesar'
       'By Caesar’s imperium you were to be restored.'
He indeed said it, but now, Dear, the sixth snowy winter sees me banished beneath the axis.

Carmina nil prosunt, nocuerunt carmina quondam
       primaque tam miserae causa fuere fugae.
At tu, per studii communia foedera sacri,
       per non uile tibi nomen amicitiae,—
sic capto Latiis Germanicus hoste catenis

Poems profit nothing; poems once harmed, and were the foremost cause of so wretched a flight.
But you, by the common covenants of the sacred study,
by the not base to you name of friendship,—
thus, with the Germanic foe captured in Latian chains

       materiam uestris adferat ingeniis,
sic ualeant pueri, uotum commune deorum,
       quos laus formandos est tibi magna datos!—
quanta potes, praebe nostrae momenta saluti
       quae nisi mutato nulla futura loco est.

       let it bring material to your talents,
thus may the boys be well, the common vow of the gods,
       whom it is a great praise to you to have been given to be formed!—
provide, as much as you can, momentum to our safety
       which, unless the place be changed, will be none.

XIV. TVTICANO

14. TO TUTICANUS

Haec tibi mittuntur, quem sum modo carmine questus
       non aptum numeris nomen habere meis,
in quibus, excepto quod adhuc utcumque ualemus,
       nil te praeterea quod iuuet inuenies.
Ipsa quoque est inuisa salus suntque ultima uota,

These are sent to you, whom I have just now in song complained of as having a name not apt to my numbers,
in which, except that as yet we somehow have strength,
you will find nothing besides that which may delight you.
Even safety itself is hateful, and the ultimate vows are,

       quolibet ex istis scilicet ire locis.
Nulla mihi cura est terra quo mittar ab ista,
       hac quia, quam uideo, gratior omnis erit:
in medias Syrtes, mediam mea uela Charybdin
       mittite, praesenti dum careamus humo.

       of course to go into any of these places.
I have no care to what land I am sent from this one,
       since any will be more agreeable than this which I see:
into the midst of the Syrtes, into mid Charybdis my sails
       send, so long as we are rid of this present ground.

Styx quoque, si quid ea est, bene commutabitur Histro,
       si quid et inferius quam Styga mundus habet.
Gramina cultus ager, frigus minus odit hirundo,
       proxima Marticolis quam loca Naso Getis.
Talia succensent propter mihi uerba Tomitae                     15
       iraque carminibus publica mota meis.

The Styx too, if it is anything, will be well exchanged for the Hister,
       and likewise whatever the world holds lower than the Styx.
A cultivated field hates grasses; the swallow hates the cold less,
       than Naso hates the places nearest to the Mars-worshiping Getae.
For such words the Tomitans are incensed at me                     15
       and the public wrath is stirred by my songs.

Ergo ego cessabo numquam per carmina laedi
plectar et incauto semper ab ingenio?
Ergo ego, ne scribam, digitos incidere cunctor
telaque adhuc demens quae nocuere sequor?

Therefore shall I never cease to be injured through my songs,
and shall I always be punished by my incautious genius?
Therefore, that I may not write, shall I hesitate to cut my fingers off,
and still, demented, shall I follow the weapons which have harmed me?

Ad ueteres scopulos iterum deuertor et illas
       in quibus offendit naufraga puppis aquas?
Sed nihil admisi, nulla est mea culpa, Tomitae,
       quos ego, cum loca sim uestra perosus, amo.
Quilibet excutiat nostri monimenta laboris:

Do I turn aside again to the old crags and to those waters
       on which the shipwrecked ship struck?
But I have committed nothing; no fault is mine, O Tomitans,
       whom I, though I have loathed your places, love.
Let anyone examine the monuments of our labor:

       littera de uobis est mea questa nihil!
Frigus et incursus omni de parte timendos
       et quod pulsetur murus ab hoste queror.
In loca, non homines uerissima crimina dixi:
       culpatis uestrum uos quoque saepe solum.

       my letter has complained nothing about you!
I complain of cold and incursions to be feared from every side
       and that the wall is battered by the enemy.
Against the places, not against men, I have spoken the most truthful charges:
       you too often blame your own soil.

Esset perpetuo sua quam uitabilis Ascra
       ausa est agricolae Musa docere senis,
et fuerat genitus terra qui scripsit in illa,
       intumuit uati tamen Ascra suo.
Quis patriam sollerte magis dilexit Vlixe?

How perpetually to-be-shunned would Ascra be, even by her own—
       whose Muse dared to teach an old farmer—
and he who wrote in that land had been begotten by that earth,
       yet Ascra swelled for her own vates.
Who loved his fatherland more skillfully than Ulysses?

       Hoc tamen asperitas indice docta loci est.
Non loca, sed mores scriptis uexauit amaris
       Scepsius Ausonios actaque Roma rea est;
falsa tamen passa est aequa conuicia mente
       obfuit auctori nec fera lingua suo.

       Yet this asperity was taught by a witness of the place.
Not places, but morals he harried with bitter writings,
       the Scepsian vexed the Ausonians, and Rome was arraigned for her deeds;
nevertheless she endured false revilings with an even mind,
       nor did his savage tongue injure its own author.

At malus interpres populi mihi concitat iram
       inque nouum crimen carmina nostra uocat.
Tam felix utinam quam pectore candidus essem!
       Extat adhuc nemo saucius ore meo.
Adde quod, Illyrica si iam pice nigrior essem,

But an evil interpreter of the people rouses anger in me
       and arraigns my songs on a new charge.
Would that I were as fortunate as I am candid in heart!
       No one as yet stands forth wounded by my mouth.
Add that, if I now were blacker than Illyrian pitch,

       non mordenda mihi turba fidelis erat.
Molliter a uobis mea sors excepta, Tomitae,
       tam mites Graios indicat esse uiros.
Gens mea Paeligni regioque domestica Sulmo
       non potuit nostris lenior esse malis.

       there was for me no faithful crowd to be bitten.
My lot was gently received by you, Tomitans,
       so mild, it indicates, are Greek men.
My people, the Paeligni, and my home region Sulmo
       could not have been more lenient to my ills.

Quem uix incolumi cuiquam saluoque daretis,
       is datus a uobis est mihi nuper honor:
solus adhuc ego sum uestris inmunis in oris
       exceptis, si qui munera legis habent;
tempora sacrata mea sunt uelata corona,

Which you would scarcely grant to anyone unharmed and safe,
       that honor has lately been given to me by you:
I alone thus far am immune on your shores
       excepting, if there are any, those who have the public duties of the law;
my consecrated temples are veiled with a crown,

       publicus inuito quam fauor inposuit.
Quam grata est igitur Latonae Delia tellus,
       erranti tutum quae dedit una locum,
tam mihi cara Tomis, patria quae sede fugatis
       tempus ad hoc nobis hospita fida manet;

       which public favor imposed on me, unwilling.
How welcome then to Latona is the Delian land,
       which alone gave a safe place to the wanderer,
so dear to me is Tomis, which, with us driven from our fatherland’s seat,
       to this time remains for us a faithful hostess;

di modo fecissent, placidae spem posset habere
pacis et a gelido longius axe foret.

if only the gods had but done so, it could have a hope of placid peace
and would be farther from the gelid axis.

XV. SEX. POMPEIO

15. TO SEXTUS POMPEIUS

Si quis adhuc usquam nostri non inmemor extat
       quidue relegatus Naso requirit agam,
Caesaribus uitam, Sexto debere salutem
       me sciat. A superis hic mihi primus erit.
Tempora nam miserae complectar ut omnia uitae,

If anyone still anywhere exists not unmindful of me,
       or what the relegated Naso inquires I should do,
to the Caesars I owe life, to Sextus I owe safety
       let him know. After the gods above, he will be first for me.
For I would encompass all the times of my miserable life,

       a meritis eius pars mihi nulla uacat.
Quae numero tot sunt quot in horto fertilis arui
       punica sub lento cortice grana rubent,
Africa quot segetes, quot Tmolia terra racemos,
       quot Sicyon bacas, quot parit Hybla fauos.

       from his merits no part is vacant for me.
Which in number are as many as in the garden of a fertile field
       pomegranate grains redden beneath the pliant rind,
as many crops as Africa [bears], as many racemes as the Tmolian earth,
       as many berries as Sicyon [has], as many honeycombs as Hybla produces.

Confiteor: testere licet. Signate, Quirites!
Nil opus est legum uiribus, ipse loquor.

I confess: be witnesses, if you please. Seal it, Citizens!
No need of the forces of the laws; I myself speak.

Inter opes et me, paruam rem, pone paternas,
pars ego sum census quantulacumque tui.
Quam tua Trinacria est regnataque terra Philippo,

Place me, a small thing, among your paternal opulence,
I am a part of your census, however small.
As much as your Trinacria is and the territory reigned by Philip,

       quam domus Augusto continuata foro,
quam tua, rus oculis domini, Campania, gratum,
       quaeque relicta tibi, Sexte, uel empta tenes,
tam tuus en ego sum, cuius te munere tristi
       non potes in Ponto dicere habere nihil.

       as much as the house contiguous to the Forum of Augustus,
as your Campania, a countryside pleasing to the master’s eyes,
       and whatever you, Sextus, hold, left to you or bought,
so yours, behold, am I, by whose sad gift
       you cannot in Pontus say you have nothing.

Atque utinam possis et detur amicius aruum
       remque tuam ponas in meliore loco!
Quod quoniam in dis est, tempta lenire precando
       numina perpetua quae pietate colis.
Erroris nam tu uix est discernere nostri

And would that you could, and that a friendlier field be granted,
       and that you set your property in a better place!
Since that is in the gods, try to soften by praying
       the numina which you cultivate with perpetual piety.
For you can scarcely discern our error

       sis argumentum maius an auxilium.
Nec dubitans oro, sed flumine saepe secundo
       augetur remis cursus euntis aquae.
Et pudet et metuo semperque eademque precari,
       ne subeant animo taedia iusta tuo.

       whether you be more an argument or an assistance.
Nor doubting I pray, but on a favorable river often
       the course of the going water is augmented by oars.
Both I am ashamed and I fear to ask always and the same things,
       lest just tedium enter your spirit.

Verum quid faciam? res inmoderata cupido est:
       da ueniam uitio, mitis amice, meo.
Scribere saepe aliud cupiens delabor eodem:
       ipsa locum per se littera nostra rogat.
Seu tamen effectus habitura est gratia, seu me

But what am I to do? Desire is an immoderate thing:
       grant pardon to my fault, gentle friend.
Often, wishing to write something else, I slip down into the same:
       the letter itself, on its own, asks for a place.
Or whether, nevertheless, the favor will be going to have effect, or me

       dura iubet gelido Parca sub axe mori,
semper inoblita repetam tua munera mente
       et mea me tellus audiet esse tuum.
Audiet et caelo posita est quaecumque sub ullo,
       transit nostra feros si modo Musa Getas,

       the harsh Fate bids me to die beneath the icy axis,
ever-unforgetting I shall recall your gifts with my mind,
       and my own land will hear that I am yours.
And whatever is placed beneath any sky will hear as well,
       if only my Muse passes beyond the fierce Getae,

teque meae causam seruatoremque salutis
meque tuum libra norit et aere minus.

and you, the cause and preserver of my salvation,
and may the balance know me as yours, and for less bronze.

XVI. AD INVIDVM

16. TO THE ENVIOUS MAN

Inuide, quid laceras Nasonis carmina rapti?
       Non solet ingeniis summa nocere dies
famaque post cineres maior uenit et mihi nomen
       tum quoque, cum uiuis adnumerarer, erat,
cumque foret Marsus magnique Rabirius oris

Envious one, why do you tear at the songs of Naso, snatched away?
       The last day is not wont to harm talents
and greater fame comes after the ashes, and I too had a name
       even then, when I was numbered among the living,
and when there were Marsus and great-mouthed Rabirius

       Iliacusque Macer sidereusque Pedo
et qui Iunonem laesisset in Hercule, Carus,
       Iunonis si iam non gener ille foret,
quique dedit Latio carmen regale, Seuerus
       et cum subtili Priscus uterque Numa,

       and Iliac Macer and sidereal Pedo
and Carus, who would have offended Juno in Hercules,
       if that man were not now the son-in-law of Juno,
and Severus, who gave to Latium a regal song,
       and Priscus together with subtle Numa, both.

quique uel inparibus numeris, Montane, uel aequis
       sufficis et gemino carmine nomen habes,
et qui Penelopae rescribere iussit Vlixem
       errantem saeuo per duo lustra mari,
quique suam Troezena inperfectumque dierum

and you who either in unequal numbers, Montanus, or in equal,
       are sufficient, and bear a name by twin song,
and he who ordered Ulysses to write back to Penelope,
       wandering for ten years over the savage sea,
and he who [sang] his Troezen and the unfinished of the days

       deseruit celeri morte Sabinus opus,
ingeniique sui dictus cognomine Largus,
       Gallica qui Phrygium duxit in arua senem,
quique canit domito Camerinus ab Hectore Troiam,
       quique sua nomen Phyllide Tuscus habet,

       Sabinus abandoned his work by swift death,
and Largus, said to have his cognomen from his own genius,
       who led the Phrygian old man into Gallic fields,
and Camerinus, who sings of Troy, with Hector conquered,
       and the Tuscan who has his name from his own Phyllis,

ueliuolique maris uates, cui credere posses
       carmina caeruleos composuisse deos,
quique acies Libycas Romanaque proelia dixit,
       et scriptor Marius dexter in omne genus,
Trinacriusque suae Perseidos auctor et auctor

the poet of the sail-winged sea, to whom you could believe
       that the cerulean gods composed songs,
who spoke of Libyan battle-lines and Roman battles,
       and the writer Marius, dexterous in every genre,
and the Trinacrian author and originator of his own Perseïs

       Tantalidae reducis Tyndaridosque Lupus,
et qui Maeoniam Phaeacida uertit, et, une
       Pindaricae fidicen, tu quoque, Rufe, lyrae,
Musaque Turrani tragicis innixa coturnis
       et tua cum socco Musa, Melisse, leui;

       Lupus, poet of the returning Tantalid and the Tyndarid,
and he who turned the Maeonian Phaeacid, and, one
       singer of the Pindaric lyre, you too, Rufus,
and the Muse of Turranius leaning on tragic buskins
       and your Muse too, Melissus, with the light sock;

cum Varius Graccusque darent fera dicta tyrannis,
       Callimachi Proculus molle teneret iter,
Tityron antiquas Passerque rediret ad herbas
       aptaque uenanti Grattius arma daret,
Naidas a satyris caneret Fontanus amatas,

when Varius and Graccus would give fierce sayings to tyrants,
       Proculus would keep the soft path of Callimachus,
Tityrus and the Sparrow would return to the ancient grasses
       and Grattius would furnish arms apt for the hunter,
Fontanus would sing of the Naiads loved by satyrs,

       clauderet inparibus uerba Capella modis,
cumque forent alii, quorum mihi cuncta referre
       nomina longa mora est, carmina uulgus habet,
essent et iuuenes, quorum quod inedita cura est,
       adpellandorum nil mihi iuris adest.

       Capella would close his words in unequal modes,
and though there were others, to refer all whose names would be for me a long delay, the crowd has their songs,
       and there were also young men, whose work, because it is unpublished,
I have no right to address by name.

Te tamen in turba non ausim, Cotta, silere,
       Pieridum lumen praesidiumque fori,
maternos Cottas cui Messalasque paternos,
       Maxime, nobilitas ingeminata dedit.
Dicere si fas est, claro mea nomine Musa

You, however, in the throng I would not dare, Cotta, to pass over in silence,
       luminary of the Pierides and the presidium of the forum,
to whom the maternal Cottas and the paternal Messalae,
       Maximus, a redoubled nobility has bestowed.
If it is lawful to say, let my Muse speak under my clear name

       atque inter tantos quae legeretur erat.
Ergo submotum patria proscindere, Liuor,
       desine neu cineres sparge, cruente, meos!
Omnia perdidimus, tantummodo uita relicta est,
       praebeat ut sensum materiamque mali.

       and among so many she was one to be read.
Therefore, to lacerate me, removed from my fatherland, Envy,
       cease, and do not scatter, blood-stained one, my ashes!
We have lost all things; only life has been left,
       so that it may provide sensation and the material of ill.

Quid iuuat extinctos ferrum demittere in artus?
Non habet in nobis iam noua plaga locum.

What does it avail to plunge the iron into extinguished limbs?
A new wound now has no place in us.