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