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