TRANSLATIONS.

HORACE,

BOOK III. ODE III.

Augustus had a design to rebuild Troy, and make it the metropolis of the Roman empire: having closetted several Senators on the project, Horace is supposed to have written the following Ode on this occasion.

THE man resolved, and steady to his trust,
Inflexible to ill, and obstinately just,

May the rude rabble's insolence despise,

Their senseless clamours and tumultuous cries; The tyrant's fierceness he beguiles,

And the stern brow and the harsh voice defies, And with superior greatness smiles.

Not the rough whirlwind that deforms Adria's black gulf, and vexes it with storms, The stubborn virtue of his soul can move, Nor the red arm of angry Jove,

That flings the thunder from the sky,

And gives it rage to roar, and strength to fly.

Should the whole frame of Nature round him In ruin and confusion hurl'd,

[break,

He, unconcern'd, would hear the mighty crack, And stand secure amidst a falling world.

Such were the godlike arts that led
Bright Pollux to the bless'd abodes;
Such did for great Alcides plead,
And gain'd a place among the gods,

Where now Augustus, mix'd with heroes, lies,
And to his lips the nectar bowl applies;
His ruddy lips the purple tincture show,
And with immortal stains divinely glow.

By arts like these did young Lyæus rise,
His tigers drew him to the skies;
Wild from the desert, and unbroke,
In vain they foam'd, in vain they stared,
In vain their eyes with fury glared;

[yoke.

He tamed them to the lash, and bent them to the Such were the paths that Rome's great founder

When in a whirlwind snatch'd on high

He shook off dull mortality,

And lost the monarch in the god.

[trod

Bright Juno then her awful silence broke,
And thus the' assembled deities bespoke :
'Troy, (says the goddess) perjured Troy, has felt
The dire effects of her proud tyrant's guilt;
The towering pile and soft abodes,
Wall'd by the hand of servile gods,
Now spreads its ruins all around,
And lies inglorious on the ground;
An umpire, partial and unjust,
And a lewd woman's impious lust,

Lay heavy on her head, and sunk her to the dust.
Since false Laomedon's tyrannic sway,
That durst defraud the' immortals of their pay,
Her guardian gods renounced their patronage,
Nor would the fierce invading foe repel;

To

my resentment, and Minerva's rage, The guilty king and the whole people fell.

And now the long-protracted wars are o'er, The soft adulterer shines no more;

No more does Hector's force the Trojans shield, That drove whole armies back, and singly clear'd

the field.

My vengeance sated, I at length resign
To Mars his offspring of the Trojan line:
Advanced to godhead let him rise,
And take his station in the skies,
There entertain his ravish'd sight
With scenes of glory, fields of light,
Quaff, with the gods, immortal wine,
And see adoring nations crowd his shrine.
'The thin remains of Troy's afflicted host
In distant realms may seats unenvied find,
And flourish on a foreign coast,

But far be Rome from Troy disjoin'd;
Removed by seas from the disastrous shore,
May endless billows rise between, and storms
unnumber'd roar.

'Still let the cursed detested place,

Where Priam lies, and Priam's faithless race,
Be cover'd o'er with weeds, and hid in grass :
There let the wanton flocks unguarded stray,
Or, while the lonely shepherd sings,
Amidst the mighty ruins play,

And frisk upon the tombs of kings.

May tigers there, and all the savage kind,

Sad solitary haunts and silent deserts find;

In gloomy vaults and nooks of palaces,
May the' unmolested lioness

Her brinded whelps securely lay,

Or, couch'd, in dreadful slumbers waste the day.

While Troy in heaps of ruin lies,

Rome and the Roman Capitol shall rise ;

The' illustrious exiles unconfined

Shall triumph far and near, and rule mankind.
In vain the sea's intruding tide

Europe from Afric shall divide,

And part the sever'd world in two:

Through Afric's sands their triumphs they shall

And the long train of victories pursue

To Nile's yet undiscover'd head.

[spread,

Riches the hardy soldiers shall despise, And look on gold with undesiring eyes, Nor the disbowell'd earth explore

In search of the forbidden ore;

Those glittering ills conceal'd within the mine,
Shall lie untouch'd, and innocently shine.
To the last bounds that Nature sets,
The piercing colds and sultry heats,
The godlike race shall spread their arms:
Now fill the Polar Circle with alarms,

Till storms and tempests their pursuits confine;
Nor sweat for conquest underneath the Line.
This only law the victor shall restrain,
On these conditions shall he reign;
If none his guilty hand employ

To build again a second Troy,

If none the rash design pursue,

Nor tempt the vengeance of the gods anew.
'A curse there cleaves to the devoted place,
That shall the new foundations rase;
Greece shall in mutual leagues conspire
To storm the rising town with fire,

And at their army's head myself will show
What Juno, urged to all her rage, can do.

Thrice should Apollo's self the city raise, And line it round with walls of brass,

Thrice should my favourite Greeks his works confound,

And hew the shining fabric to the ground;
Thrice should her captive dames to Greece return,
And their dead sons and slaughter'd husbands
mourn.'

But hold, my Muse, forbear thy towering flight,
Nor bring the secrets of the gods to light;
In vain would thy presumptuous verse
The' immortal rhetoric rehearse ;

The mighty strains, in lyric numbers bound,
Forget their majesty, and lose their sound.

VIRGIL'S FOURTH GEORGIC,

EXCEPT THE STORY OF ARISTEUS.

ETHERIAL sweets shall next my Muse engage,
And this, Mecenas, claims your patronage ;
Of little creatures' wondrous acts I treat,
The ranks and mighty leaders of their state,
Their laws, employments, and their wars, relate:
A trifling theme provokes my humble lays,
Trifling the theme, not so the poet's praise,
If great Apollo and the tuneful Nine

Join in the piece, and make the work divine.
First for your bees a proper
station find,
That's fenced about, and shelter'd from the wind;
For winds divert them in their flight, and drive
The swarms, when loaden homeward, from their

hive.