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Aut pressa puris mella condit amphoris,
Aut tondet infirmas oves:

Vel cum decor um mitibus pomis caput
Autumnus arvis extulit:

Ut gaudet insitiva decerpens pyra,
Certantem et uvam purpuræ,
Quâ muneretur te, Priape, et te, pater
Sylvane, tutor finium!

Libet jacere modò sub antiqua ilice;
Modò in tenaci gramine.
Labuntur altis interim ripis aquæ :
Queruntur in sylvis aves,

Fontesque lymphis obstrepunt manantibus,
Somnos quod invitet leves.

At cum tonentis annus hibernus Jovis
Imbres nivesque comparat;

Aut trudit acres hinc, et hinc multâ cane

Apros in obstantes plagas:

Aut amite levi rara tendit retia ;

Turdis edacibus dolos;

Pavidumque leporem, et advenam laqueo gruem,

Fucunda captat præmia:

Quis non malarum, quas amor curas habet,

Hæc inter obliviscitur?

Quòd si pudica mulier in partem juvet
Domum, atque dulces liberos,
(Sabina qualis, aut perusta solibus
Pernicis uxor Appuli

Sacrum vestusti extruat lignis focum
Lassi sub adventum viri)

Claudensque textis cratibus lætum pecus
Distenta siccet ubera;

Et horna dulci vina promens dolio
Dapes inemptas apparet;

Non me Lucrina juverint conchylia,
Magisve rhombus, aut scari

Or the prest honey in pure pots doth keep
Of earth, and shears the tender sheep:
Or when that autumn through the fields lifts round
His head, with mellow apples crown'd,
How plucking pears, his own hand grafted had,
And purple-matching grapes, he's glad!
With which, Priapus, he may thank thy hands,
And, Sylvan, thine, that kept'st his lands!
Then now beneath some ancient oak he may
Now in the rooted grass him lay,

Whilst from the higher banks do slide the floods;
The soft birds quarrel in the woods,

The fountains murmur as the streams do creep,
And all invite to easy sleep.

Then when the thund'ring Jove, his snow and showers

Are gathering by the wintry hours:

Or hence, or thence, he drives with many a hound Wild boars into his toils pitch'd round:

Or strains on his small fork his subtle nets

For th' eating thrush, or pit-falls sets:

And snares the fearful hare, and new-come crane,
And 'counts them sweet rewards so ta'en.
Who amongst these delights, would not forget
Love's cares so evil and so great?

But if, to boot with these, a chaste wife meet
For household aid, and children sweet;
Such as the Sabines, or a sun-burnt blowse,
Some lusty quick Apulian's spouse,

To deck the hallow'd hearth with old wood fired
Against the husband comes home tired;
That penning the glad flock in hurdles by,
Their swelling udders doth draw dry:
And from the sweet tub wine of this year takes,
And unbought viands ready makes.

Not Lucrine oysters I could then more prize,

Nor turbot, nor bright golden-eyes :

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Si quos Eois intonata fluctibus
Hyems ad hoc vertat mare:

Non Afra avis descendat in ventrem meum :
Non attagen Ionicus

Jucundior, quam lecta de pinguissimis
Oliva ramis arborum:

Aut herba lapathi prata amantis, et gravi
Malva salubres corpori;
Vel agna festis cæsa terminalibus:
Vel hædus ereptus lupo.

Has inter epulas, ut juvat pastas oves
Videre properanteis domum !
Videre fessos vomerem inversum boves
Collo trahentes languido!

Positosque vernas, ditis examen domus,
Circum renidentes lares!
Hæc ubi locutus fœnerator Alphius,
Jam jam futurus rusticus,
Omnem relegit idibus pecuniam;
Quærit calendis ponere.

HORACE, ODE I. LIB. IV.

AD VENEREM.

NTERMISSA Venus diu,

Rursus bella moves: parce precor, precor:

Non sumqualis eram bonæ

Sub regno Cynara: desine dulcium

Mater sava Cupidinum,

Circa lustra decem flectere mollibus

Fam durum imperiis: abi

Quò blanda juvenum te revocant preces.

Tempestivius in domo

Pauli purpureis ales oloribus,

If with bright floods, the winter troubled much,
Into our seas send any such :

The Ionian godwit, nor the ginny-hen

Could not go down my belly then

More sweet than olives, that new-gather'd be
From fattest branches of the tree :

Or the herb sorrel, that loves meadows still,
Or mallows loosing bodies ill :

Or at the feast of bounds, the lamb then slain,
Or kid forc'd from the wolf again,
Among these cates how glad the sight doth come
Of the fed flocks approaching home:

To view the weary oxen draw, with bare
And fainting necks, the turned share!
The wealthy household swarm of bondmen met,
And 'bout the steaming chimney set!

These thoughts when usurer Alphius, now about
To turn mere farmer, had spoke out;
'Gainst the ides, his moneys he gets in with pain,
At the calends puts all out again.

ODE I. BOOK IV.

TO VENUS.

ENUS, again thou mov'st a war
Long intermitted, pray thee, pray thee

spare:

I am not such, as in the reign Of the good Cynara I was: refrain Sour mother of sweet Loves, forbear

To bend a man now at his fiftieth year

Too stubborn for commands so slack:

Go where youth's soft entreaties call thee back. More timely hie thee to the house,

With thy bright swans, of Paulus Maximus :

Comissabere Maximi,

Si torrere jecur quæris idoneum.
Namque et nobilis, et decens,
Et pro solicitis non tacitus reis.
Et centum puer artium,

Latè signa feret militiæ tuæ.
Et quandoque potentior

Largi muneribus riserit æmuli, Albanos prope te lacus

Ponet marmoream sub trabe cyprea. Illic plurima naribus

Duces tura, lyræque, et Berecynthia Delectabere tibia

Mistis carminibus non sine fistula. Illic bis pueri die,

Numen cum teneris virginibus tuum Laudantes, pede candido

In morem Salium ter quatient humum.

Me nec fœmina nec puer

Fam, nec spes animi credula mutui,

Nec certare juvat mero :

Nec vincire novis tempora floribus.

Sed cur, heu! Ligurine, cur

Manat rara meas lachryma per genas

Cur facunda parum decoro

Inter verba cadit lingua silentio?

Nocturnis te ego somniis

?

Fam captum teneo, jam volucrem sequor :

Te per gramina Martii

Campi, te per aquas, dure, volubiles.

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