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. Here’s to Murena!
  2. Romulus in Heaven
  3. New temples, new morals
  4. A day off for rain
  5. Housman and Horace
  6. Celebrating Neptune’s feast day
  7. Horace’s monument
  8. The final ode
  9. Don’t trust Barine
  10. Horace’s Cleopatra ode
  11. Locked out
  12. Licymnia
  13. Soracte
  14. Curse you, tree!
  15. Valgius and Mystes
  16. Wealth should be used, not hoarded
  17. Augustus, master of the world
  18. Glycera
  19. Leave the cares of state, Maecenas
  20. Lyce grows old
  21. Carpe diem, Sestius
  22. The country is best
  23. Horace’s Chloe
  24. Lydia’s tragedy
  25. The consolations of wine
  26. Love lost and found
  27. A call for a moral renaissance
  28. Be your age, Chloris!
  29. Gyges’s constancy
  30. Some advice for Dellius
  31. Mourning for a good man
  32. A Prayer to the poetry-God
  33. Augustus returns
  34. A dedication to Diana
  35. Roman values for the new age
  36. Horace, the wolf and the upright life
  37. An invitation to Maecenas
  38. Horace rests from his labours
  39. The fleeting years slip by
  40. Postumus, the years slip by
  41. Diana and Apollo: a hymn
  42. Romulus becomes a God
  43. Europa’s lament
  44. Relief from care
  45. What Roman youth should be
  46. O Fons Bandusiae
  47. Fortuna
  48. Horace returns to lyric poetry
  49. Poetry, the giver of immortality
  50. Last love
  51. Iccius goes soldiering
  52. Pyrrha
  53. Stormy seas
  54. A prayer to Mercury
  55. Numida’s back
  56. A prayer to Venus
  57. Neobule
  58. Horace’s limitations
  59. Rome: disaster and salvation
  60. The pleasures and dangers of wine
  61. Pollio’s histories of civil war
  62. Pindar and Augustus
  63. An invocation to the lyre
  64. Late stirrings
  65. Horace, accepted bard of Rome
  66. Tibur or Tarentum: a poet’s dilemma?
  67. Love a slave-girl? Oh, Xanthias!
  68. The victories of Drusus and Tiberius
  69. Give me comfort, not riches
  70. Horace the swan
  71. Unrequited love
  72. Horace’s prayer to a wine-jar
  73. A Farewell to arms
  74. Courage and decadence: the Regulus ode
  75. Diffugere nives
  76. A divine inspiration
  77. Lalage is too young
  78. A tactful compliment
  79. Awe for the Gods
  80. A plea for burial
  81. The lust for money versus the simple life
  82. Horace the peacemaker
  83. Poscimur
  84. Horace’s reverence to Bacchus
  85. Horace’s first Ode
  86. A country sacrifice
  87. Horace’s fame and Apollo’s gift
  88. The tug-of-war for Nearchus
  89. Luxury versus the simple life
  90. Jupiter’s authority, and Caesar’s
  91. The Golden Mean
  92. Caesar’s safe return
  93. A change of mind
  94. A prayer to Faunus
  95. Nereus prophesies the Trojan War
  96. Jealousy
  97. Gathering rosebuds: carpe diem
  98. Horace’s wine
  99. A garland from the Muses
  100. Horace welcomes his army comrade
  101. An oath to Maecenas
  102. Lovely mother, lovelier daughter
    103. View Latin Poems
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