Odes 2.11

Don’t worry, be happy

by Horace

Another ode on a favourite Horatian theme: carpe diem; don’t worry about a future which cannot be controlled, but enjoy the good things of life while you can. Quinctius, the addressee, appears again in a later work by Horace, and they seem to be friends of similar age, to judge by the grey hair referred to in this poem. Commentators point out what may be echoes of lines and themes in Anacreon, a poet of the archaic Greek age of the 6th century BCE, which Horace admired, and whose metres it was his ambition to Romanise in the Odes.

Metre: Alcaics.

See the illustrated blog post here.

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Quid bellicosus Cantaber et Scythes,
Hirpine Quincti, cogitet Hadria
divisus obiecto, remittas
quaerere nec trepides in usum

poscentis aevi pauca: fugit retro
levis iuventas et decor arida
pellente lascivos amores
canitie facilemque somnum.

non semper idem floribus est honor
vernis neque uno luna rubens nitet
voltu: quid aeternis minorem
consiliis animum fatigas?

cur non sub alta vel platano vel hac
pinu iacentes sic temere et rosa
canos odorati capillos,
dum licet, Assyriaque nardo

potamus uncti? dissipat Euhius
curas edacis. quis puer ocius
restinguet ardentis Falerni
pocula praetereunte lympha?

quis devium scortum eliciet domo
Lyden? eburna, dic age, cum lyra
maturet, in comptum Lacaenae
more comam religata nodum.

Don’t ask yourself what the warlike Spaniard or Scythian may be plotting, Quintus of Hirpini – you are separated from him by the Adriatic laid between you – and do not excite yourself about the modest basic needs of life: our careless youth and looks are receding fast, as our withered grey hairs drive away our playful loves and our easy sleep. The splendour of spring flowers does not stay the same, nor does the blushing moon shine out with just one face: why weary a bounded mind with plans for eternity? While we can, why don’t we recline here, just as we are, under this tall plane-tree or this pine, scent our white hairs with rose, and drink, anointed with Assyrian balsam? Bacchus chases gnawing cares away. Which slave shall look lively and dampen the fire in our cups of Falernian with water from the stream running by? Which, tell me now, shall tempt the hetaira Lyde from home and away from her patch? Let her hurry here with her ivory lyre, tying her hair in a neat bun, Spartan style.

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More Poems by Horace

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