Odes 1.27

Horace the peacemaker

by Horace

This dramatic monologue is a purely literary exercise: with the exception of the Falernian wine, the names and atmosphere are more Greek than Roman.

Metre: Alcaic.

See the illustrated blog post here.

To listen, press play:

To scroll the original and English translation of the poem at the same time - tap inside one box to select it and then scroll.

Natis in usum laetitiae scyphis
pugnare Thracum est: tollite barbarum
morem verecundumque Bacchum
sanguineis prohibete rixis.

vino et lucernis Medus acinaces
immane quantum discrepat: inpium
lenite clamorem sodales
et cubito remanete presso.

voltis severi me quoque sumere
partem Falerni? dicat Opuntiae
frater Megillae, quo beatus
volnere, qua pereat sagitta.

cessat voluntas? non alia bibam
mercede. quae te cumque domat Venus,
non erubescendis adurit
ignibus ingenuoque semper

amore peccas. quidquid habes, age,
depone tutis auribus. a miser,
quanta laborabas Charybdi,
digne puer meliore flamma.

quae saga, quis te solvere Thessalis
magus venenis, quis poterit deus?
vix inligatum te triformi
Pegasus expediet Chimaera.

To fight with cups that were made for gaiety is for the Thracians – stop these barbarous goings-on and keep bashful Bacchus away from bloodthirsty brawls! A Persian shortsword is colossally out of place with wine and lanterns: leave off your disrespectful racket, my friends, and keep your elbows on the couch. You want me, too, to drink some of this powerful Falernian, do you? Then let our friend here, Megilla from Opuntia’s brother, tell whose love-wound, whose arrow, he is dying happy from! I will not drink at any other price. Whatever love has mastered you, it doesn’t burn with shameful fires, you always stray with people of the proper sort. Here, whisper in my ear, it’s safe with me … oh, you poor boy, what a tremendous whirlpool you have been floundering in, a real Charybdis! You deserved a better object for your passion! Who, what witch or enchanter with Thessalian drugs, what god even, will free you? Pegasus himself will scarcely disentangle you from that three-formed Chimaera!

`

More Poems by Horace

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