Horace Ode 1.37

THE FALL OF CLEOPATRA

Nunc est bibendum, nun pede libero

pulsanda tellus, nunc Saliaribus

ornare pulvinar deorum

tempus erat dapibus, sodales.

Antehac nefas depromere Caecubum

cellis avitis, dum Capitolio

regina dementis ruinas,

funus et imperio parabat

contaminato cum grege turpium

morbo virorum, quidlibet impotens

sperare fortunaque dulci

ebria. Sed minuit furorem

vix una sospes navis ab ignibus,

mentemque lymphatam Mareotico

redegit in veros timores

Caesar, ab Italia volantem

remis adurgens, accipiter velut

mollis coumbas aut leporem citus

venator in campis nivalis

Haemoniae, daret ut catenis

fatale monstrum. Quae generosius

perire quaerens nec muliebriter

expavit ensem nec latentis

classe cita reparavit oras;

ausa et iacentem visere regiam

vultu sereno, fortis et asperas

tractare serpentes, ut atrum

corpore combiberet venenum,

deliberata morte ferocior;

saevis LIburnis scilicet invidens

privata deduci superbo

non humilis mulier triumpho.

 

Now we must drink,

now the earth must be beat by us with a free foot,

now it was the time to decorate the seat of honor of the gods

at the Salian  feats, comrades.

For it was a crime to bring out Caecuban wine from

the ancestral cellars, while the queen was preparing

demented destruction for the capital and ruin for the empire

with the crowd of men contaminated from a disease,

having no control to hope for anything at all and drunk wit sweet fortune.

But one ship

scarcely safe and sound from the fires

diminished her madness, and Caesar pursuing her flying from

Italy with horrors, reduced her mind having been crazy with 

Mareotic wine into true fears,

just as a hawk pursues soft doves or

just as a swift hunter pursues a rabbit 

in the plains of snowy Haemonia,

in order that he might give that destructive monster to chains.

Seeking to perish with more dignity,

she feared the sword not like a woman,

and she did not acquire shores

lying hidden with swift fleet;

having dared to see both her palace lying in destruction with

a calm face and brave to handle fierce serpents

in order that she might drink dark poison with her body.

 

She was fiercer with a determined debt,

clearly begrudging to be let down in Liburnian gallies

as a private citizen in a proud triumph, not as a humble woman. 

 

Horace 1.35

A HYMN TO FORTUNE

Oh goddess, you who rule Antium pleasing, ready either to lift
a mortal body, from the lowest step or to turn
proud triumphs to destruction:

An agitated poor man goes to you, the tiller of the country
entreats you with a prayer,
whoever provokes the Carpathian sea
with a Bithynian ship, embraces you as the mistress of the sea;

you rude Dacian, he fears you, the Scythians fear you
and cities and people and warlike Latium
and mothers of barbarian kings and
crimson tyrants fear you.

They fear that you demolish the standing column of the state with
your harmful foot, and they fear that the packed crowds of people urge forth
to arms, the ones doing nothing, and they fear that
the crowd of people break the empire.

Cruel necessity always precedes you,
carrying large nails and carrying wedges with a hand
hard as bronze, and a severe
hook is not absent as well as liquid lead.

Hope and faith cultivate with you with a rare white veiled cloth,
and does not deny you as a companion, you being hostile leave behind
the powerful homes with garments having been changed.

But the faithless crowd steps back and the lying courtesan steps back
friends flee in different directions
with the kegs having been drained with the drapes,
friends who are deceitful to bear the yoke equally.

Keep safe Caesar about to go into the farthest
Britain territories, keep safe the fresh crowd of youth,
to be feared in the directions of the dawn
and in the red sea.

Alas, we are ashamed of the scars and of the crime and of brothers.
What do we run away from we being the hardy generation? What of an outrage
had we left untried? From where
has the youth restrain their hand

out of a fear of the gods? Which alters
has it spared? O, if only would reforge
on a new anvil the sword having been made blunt against
the Scythians and the Arabians.   

What's This All About?

  Well, since I'm a Classics major and I deal with translating Latin and Greek all day errday, I've decided that maybe it's time to post some of my translations. It's kind of late for me to be doing this since I'm graduating next semester, but oh well, might as well put up some stuff. Hopefully it will help others in the future who want a literal translation of stuff.

Anyhoo, hope it's alright!