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