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