Odes 2.3

Some advice for Dellius

by Horace

In this poem, Horace pitches the conventional theme of “carpe diem” very much in terms of Epicurean philosophy – living the good life means maintaining a calm and balanced mind. Beyond that, not much comfort is on offer, but despite the sadness, the poem is very beautiful, and its power largely comes from the way in which sound and meaning flow together through each stanza. Dellius seems to be a rich landowner, and Horace labours the point that there are things that money can’t buy.

The three sisters are the fates, the threads they spin are the destinies of men, Inachus was a legendary king, shaking pebbles in an urn until one popped out was an ancient method of drawing lots and the mariner who sails the boat to everlasting exile is Charon, who ferries dead souls across the River Styx to Hades.

Metre: Alcaic

See the illustrated blog post here.

If you would like to compare this poem to others on the theme of “carpe diem”, there is a link to a selection here.

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

Aequam memento rebus in arduis
servare mentem, non secus in bonis
ab insolenti temperatam
laetitia, moriture Delli,

seu maestus omni tempore vixeris
seu te in remoto gramine per dies
festos reclinatum bearis
interiore nota Falerni.

quo pinus ingens albaque populus
umbram hospitalem consociare amant
ramis? quid obliquo laborat
lympha fugax trepidare rivo?

huc vina et unguenta et nimium breves
flores amoenae ferre iube rosae,
dum res et aetas et sororum
fila trium patiuntur atra.

cedes coemptis saltibus et domo
villaque, flavus quam Tiberis lavit,
cedes, et exstructis in altum
divitiis potietur heres.

divesne prisco natus ab Inacho
nil interest an pauper et infima
de gente sub divo moreris,
victima nil miserantis Orci.

omnes eodem cogimur, omnium
versatur urna serius ocius
sors exitura et nos in aeternum
exilium impositura cumbae.

Remember, keep your state of mind in balance when the going in life gets steep, and hold it back from excessive happiness when things are going well, Dellius, doomed to die,

whether you have lived in sadness for the whole of your time, or whether, reclining through one day of celebration after another on a secluded lawn, you have been blessed with some fine vintage of Falernian from the inner cellar.

Why do the massive pine and the white poplar love to give hospitable shade together from their branches? For what does the fleeing stream strive and bustle its way down its winding bed?

Call for wine, and unguents, and the all-too-brief flowers of the lovely rose, while means and age – and the black thread of the three sisters – allow.

You will leave the farms that you have bought, and your house and your villa by which the yellow Tiber flows, you will leave, and the riches that you have piled so high your heir will take possession of.

Whether you are rich and descended from ancient Inachus, or a pauper of the lowest family and have eked out life with no roof over your head, makes no difference, you victim of pitiless Hades.

The same force drives us all, we all have our lot which is being shaken in the urn and will, sooner or later come out and put us on the boat for everlasting exile.

`

More Poems by Horace

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