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XXIX.
Heir of Tyrrhenian kings, for you
A mellow cask, unbroach'd as yet,
Maecenas mine, and roses new,
And fresh-drawn oil your locks to wet,
Are waiting here. Delay not still,
Nor gaze on Tibur, never dried,
And sloping AEsule, and the hill
Of Telegon the parricide.
O leave that pomp that can but tire,
Those piles, among the clouds at home;
Cease for a moment to admire
The smoke, the wealth, the noise of Rome!
In change e'en luxury finds a zest:
The poor man's supper, neat, but spare,
With no gay couch to seat the guest,
Has smooth'd the rugged brow of care.
Now glows the Ethiop maiden's sire;
Now Procyon rages all ablaze;
The Lion maddens in his ire,
As suns bring back the sultry days:
The shepherd with his weary sheep
Seeks out the streamlet and the trees,
Silvanus' lair: the still banks sleep
Untroubled by the wandering breeze.
You ponder on imperial schemes,
And o'er the city's danger brood:
Bactrian and Serian haunt your dreams,
And Tanais, toss'd by inward feud.
The issue of the time to be
Heaven wisely hides in blackest night,
And laughs, should man's anxiety
Transgress the bounds of man's short sight.
Control the present: all beside
Flows like a river seaward borne,
Now rolling on its placid tide,
Now whirling massy trunks uptorn,
And waveworn crags, and farms, and stock,
In chaos blent, while hill and wood
Reverberate to the enormous shock,
When savage rains the tranquil flood
Have stirr'd to madness. Happy he,
Self-centred, who each night can say,
"My life is lived: the morn may see
A clouded or a sunny day:
That rests with Jove: but what is gone,
He will not, cannot turn to nought;
Nor cancel, as a thing undone,
What once the flying hour has brought."
Fortune, who loves her cruel game,
Still bent upon some heartless whim,
Shifts her caresses, fickle dame,
Now kind to me, and now to him:
She stays; 'tis well: but let her shake
Those wings, her presents I resign,
Cloak me in native worth, and take
Chaste Poverty undower'd for mine.
Though storms around my vessel rave,
I will not fall to craven prayers,
Nor bargain by my vows to save
My Cyprian and Sidonian wares,
Else added to the insatiate main.
Then through the wild Aegean roar
The breezes and the Brethren Twain
Shall waft my little boat ashore.
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Tyrrhena Regum.
Tyrrhena regum progenies, tibi
non ante uerso lene merum cado
cum flore, Maecenas, rosarum et
pressa tuis balanus capillis
amdudum apud me est: eripe te morae 5
i
nec semper udum Tibur et Aefulae
decliue contempleris aruom et
Telegoni iuga parricidae.
Fastidiosam desere copiam et
molem propinquam nubibus arduis, 10
omitte mirari beatae
fumum et opes strepitumque Romae.
Plerumque gratae diuitibus uices
mundaeque paruo sub lare pauperum
cenae sine aulaeis et ostro 15
sollicitam explicuere frontem.
Iam clarus occultum Andromedae pater
ostendit ignem, iam Procyon furit
et stella uesani Leonis
sole dies referente siccos; 20
iam pastor umbras cum grege languido
riuomque fessus quaerit et horridi
dumeta Siluani caretque
ripa uagis taciturna uentis.
Tu ciuitatem quis deceat status 25
curas et urbi sollicitus times
quid Seres et regnata Cyro
Bactra parent Tanaisque discors.
Prudens futuri temporis exitum
caliginosa nocte premit deus 30
ridetque, si mortalis ultra
fas trepidat. Quod adest memento
componere aequus; cetera fluminis
ritu feruntur, nunc medio aequore
cum pace delabentis Etruscum 35
in mare, nunc lapides adesos
stirpisque raptas et pecus et domos
uolentis una, non sine montium
clamore uicinaeque siluae,
cum fera diluuies quietos 40
inritat amnis. Ille potens sui
laetusque deget cui licet in diem
dixisse: 'Vixi': cras uel atra
nube polum Pater occupato
uel sole puro; non tamen inritum, 45
quodcumque retro est, efficiet neque
diffinget infectumque reddet
quod fugiens semel hora uexit.
Fortuna saeuo laeta negotio et
ludum insolentem ludere pertinax 50
transmutat incertos honores,
nunc mihi, nunc alii benigna.
Laudo manentem; si celeris quatit
pinnas, resigno quae dedit et mea
uirtute me inuoluo probamque 55
pauperiem sine dote quaero.
Non est meum, si mugiat Africis
malus procellis, ad miseras preces
decurrere et uotis pacisci,
ne Cypriae Tyriaeque merces
addant auaro diuitias mari;
tunc me biremis praesidio scaphae
tutum per Aegaeos tumultus
aura feret geminusque Pollux.
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