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