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