Odes 2.3

Some advice for Dellius

by Horace

In this poem, Horace pitches the conventional theme of “carpe diem” very much in terms of Epicurean philosophy – living the good life means maintaining a calm and balanced mind. Beyond that, not much comfort is on offer, but despite the sadness, the poem is very beautiful, and its power largely comes from the way in which sound and meaning flow together through each stanza. Dellius seems to be a rich landowner, and Horace labours the point that there are things that money can’t buy.

The three sisters are the fates, the threads they spin are the destinies of men, Inachus was a legendary king, shaking pebbles in an urn until one popped out was an ancient method of drawing lots and the mariner who sails the boat to everlasting exile is Charon, who ferries dead souls across the River Styx to Hades.

Metre: Alcaic

See the illustrated blog post here.

If you would like to compare this poem to others on the theme of “carpe diem”, there is a link to a selection here.

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To scroll the original and English translation of the poem at the same time - tap inside one box to select it and then scroll.

Aequam memento rebus in arduis
servare mentem, non secus in bonis
ab insolenti temperatam
laetitia, moriture Delli,

seu maestus omni tempore vixeris
seu te in remoto gramine per dies
festos reclinatum bearis
interiore nota Falerni.

quo pinus ingens albaque populus
umbram hospitalem consociare amant
ramis? quid obliquo laborat
lympha fugax trepidare rivo?

huc vina et unguenta et nimium breves
flores amoenae ferre iube rosae,
dum res et aetas et sororum
fila trium patiuntur atra.

cedes coemptis saltibus et domo
villaque, flavus quam Tiberis lavit,
cedes, et exstructis in altum
divitiis potietur heres.

divesne prisco natus ab Inacho
nil interest an pauper et infima
de gente sub divo moreris,
victima nil miserantis Orci.

omnes eodem cogimur, omnium
versatur urna serius ocius
sors exitura et nos in aeternum
exilium impositura cumbae.

Remember, keep your state of mind in balance when the going in life gets steep, and hold it back from excessive happiness when things are going well, Dellius, doomed to die,

whether you have lived in sadness for the whole of your time, or whether, reclining through one day of celebration after another on a secluded lawn, you have been blessed with some fine vintage of Falernian from the inner cellar.

Why do the massive pine and the white poplar love to give hospitable shade together from their branches? For what does the fleeing stream strive and bustle its way down its winding bed?

Call for wine, and unguents, and the all-too-brief flowers of the lovely rose, while means and age – and the black thread of the three sisters – allow.

You will leave the farms that you have bought, and your house and your villa by which the yellow Tiber flows, you will leave, and the riches that you have piled so high your heir will take possession of.

Whether you are rich and descended from ancient Inachus, or a pauper of the lowest family and have eked out life with no roof over your head, makes no difference, you victim of pitiless Hades.

The same force drives us all, we all have our lot which is being shaken in the urn and will, sooner or later come out and put us on the boat for everlasting exile.

`

More Poems by Horace

  1. Luxury versus the simple life
  2. Relief from care
  3. Lydia’s tragedy
  4. Celebrating Neptune’s feast day
  5. The pleasures and dangers of wine
  6. Numida’s back
  7. The Golden Mean
  8. Iccius goes soldiering
  9. Tibur or Tarentum: a poet’s dilemma?
  10. Horace’s monument
  11. The country is best
  12. A Farewell to arms
  13. Poscimur
  14. Horace’s wine
  15. Housman and Horace
  16. A garland from the Muses
  17. Stormy seas
  18. Horace’s first Ode
  19. Horace’s limitations
  20. Horace’s Cleopatra ode
  21. Rome: disaster and salvation
  22. An oath to Maecenas
  23. Unrequited love
  24. Here’s to Murena!
  25. The tug-of-war for Nearchus
  26. The fleeting years slip by
  27. Licymnia
  28. Diana and Apollo: a hymn
  29. Love a slave-girl? Oh, Xanthias!
  30. Horace’s Chloe
  31. The final ode
  32. Lalage is too young
  33. Gathering rosebuds: carpe diem
  34. Jealousy
  35. Roman values for the new age
  36. A prayer to Mercury
  37. Horace welcomes his army comrade
  38. Glycera
  39. Horace the swan
  40. A plea for burial
  41. Augustus, master of the world
  42. Postumus, the years slip by
  43. Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar
  44. Give me comfort, not riches
  45. Valgius and Mystes
  46. Fortuna
  47. Lovely mother, lovelier daughter
  48. Carpe diem, Sestius
  49. Pollio’s histories of civil war
  50. A prayer to Venus
  51. An invitation to Maecenas
  52. What Roman youth should be
  53. Pindar and Augustus
  54. Pyrrha
  55. Courage and decadence: the Regulus ode
  56. Don’t trust Barine
  57. Horace rests from his labours
  58. The consolations of wine
  59. A Prayer to the poetry-God
  60. Diffugere nives
  61. Wealth should be used, not hoarded
  62. Soracte
  63. Mourning for a good man
  64. Horace’s reverence to Bacchus
  65. Awe for the Gods
  66. Curse you, tree!
  67. A change of mind
  68. O Fons Bandusiae
  69. Horace, the wolf and the upright life
  70. Horace the peacemaker
  71. Horace returns to lyric poetry
  72. Don’t worry, be happy
  73. Nereus prophesies the Trojan War
  74. Last love
    75. View Latin Poems