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