Odes 1.27

Horace the peacemaker

by Horace

This dramatic monologue is a purely literary exercise: with the exception of the Falernian wine, the names and atmosphere are more Greek than Roman. The metre is Alcaics.

See the illustrated blog post here.

To listen, press play:

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

Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis
pugnare Thracum est: tollite barbarum
morem verecundumque Bacchum
sanguineis prohibete rixis.

vino et lucernis Medus acinaces
immane quantum discrepat: inpium
lenite clamorem sodales
et cubito remanete presso.

voltis severi me quoque sumere
partem Falerni? dicat Opuntiae
frater Megillae, quo beatus
volnere, qua pereat sagitta.

cessat voluntas? non alia bibam
mercede. quae te cumque domat Venus,
non erubescendis adurit
ignibus ingenuoque semper

amore peccas. quidquid habes, age,
depone tutis auribus. a miser,
quanta laborabas Charybdi,
digne puer meliore flamma.

quae saga, quis te solvere Thessalis
magus venenis, quis poterit deus?
vix inligatum te triformi
Pegasus expediet Chimaera.

To fight with cups that were made for gaiety is for the Thracians – stop these barbarous goings-on and keep bashful Bacchus away from bloodthirsty brawls! A Persian shortsword is colossally out of place with wine and lanterns: leave off your disrespectful racket, my friends, and keep your elbows on the couch. You want me, too, to drink some of this powerful Falernian, do you? Then let our friend here, Megilla from Opuntia’s brother, tell whose love-wound, whose arrow, he is dying happy from! I will not drink at any other price. Whatever love has mastered you, it doesn’t burn with shameful fires, you always stray with people of the proper sort. Here, whisper in my ear, it’s safe with me … oh, you poor boy, what a tremendous whirlpool you have been floundering in, a real Charybdis! You deserved a better object for your passion! Who, what witch or enchanter with Thessalian drugs, what god even, will free you? Pegasus himself will scarcely disentangle you from that three-formed Chimaera!

`

More Poems by Horace

  1. Pindar and Augustus
  2. Horace’s limitations
  3. Celebrating Neptune’s feast day
  4. O Fons Bandusiae
  5. Horace’s Chloe
  6. Mourning for a good man
  7. The tug-of-war for Nearchus
  8. Jealousy
  9. Horace welcomes his army comrade
  10. Horace’s monument
  11. Give me comfort, not riches
  12. Poscimur
  13. Gathering rosebuds: carpe diem
  14. Lovely mother, lovelier daughter
  15. The fleeting years slip by
  16. Horace’s first Ode
  17. Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar
  18. Here’s to Murena!
  19. Horace’s Cleopatra ode
  20. Iccius goes soldiering
  21. Horace’s wine
  22. Stormy seas
  23. Awe for the Gods
  24. Nereus prophesies the Trojan War
  25. Horace’s reverence to Bacchus
  26. Don’t trust Barine
  27. What Roman youth should be
  28. The final ode
  29. A prayer to Venus
  30. Luxury versus the simple life
  31. The country is best
  32. Glycera
  33. A garland from the Muses
  34. Courage and decadence: the Regulus ode
  35. Carpe diem, Sestius
  36. Horace rests from his labours
  37. Last love
  38. Diffugere nives
  39. A change of mind
  40. Horace returns to lyric poetry
  41. Some advice for Dellius
  42. An invitation to Maecenas
  43. Soracte
  44. Rome: disaster and salvation
  45. Housman and Horace
  46. Horace, the wolf and the upright life
  47. Lydia’s tragedy
  48. Tibur or Tarentum: a poet’s dilemma?
  49. Pyrrha
    50. View Latin Poems
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