ERGO QUINTILIUM PERPETUUS SOPOR
"Flaccus mortuus est" dolore tanto
aestivam it gelidus tremor per Urbem:
cives civibus obvii salutant,
hospes excipit, invicemque tradit,
"Flaccus mortuus est," iterque pergit.
ludos in triviis puer relinquit,
causae nescius. at magis magisque
nigrescit nova nox, tegitque vicos.
pannis obsita fessa dum moratur,
"Flaccus mortuus est," puella clamat
"Saturnaliane excident et ipsa?"
Urbs, quam foverat ille, vivere aude,
te laetam fovet usque, te paventem.
si risus, hilarare qui solebant
tuae seria frontis a! fuerunt,
si vox sollicitos referre callens
annales, lacrimantiumque ab ipsis
educens oculis leves cachinnos,
aeternum tacet-ille noster Urbem
Saturnalibus annuis revisit.
HAEC NOSTRI PARS OPTIMA SENSUS
Incessu regina patet, regina comarum
splendore praestat aureo ;-
pluribus illa quidem memorabilis, at muliebri
nil corde dulcius mihi.
ad liquidos amnes erravimus, alta ubi pinus
admurmurabat ilici,
ipsa feri nemoris pars verior, ipsa propago
silvae pudica liberae.
carmina, quis animam prodebant labra beatam,
captabat imminens polus;
oblitae pinus, memori quod corde fovebant,
quod somniabant, ilices.
a! vera incessu praestans regina superbo!
a! splendor aureus comae!
multa quidem de te fari licet, at muliebri
nil corde pluris aestimo.
The unfathomable sea, and time, and tears,
The deeds of heroes and the crimes of kings
Dispart us; and the river of events
Has, for an age of years, to east and west
More widely borne our cradles. Thou to me
Art foreign, as when seamen at the dawn
Descry a land far off and know not which.
So I approach uncertain; so I cruise
Round thy mysterious islet, and behold
Surf and great mountains and loud river-bars,
And from the shore hear inland voices call.
Strange is the seaman's heart; he hopes, he fears;
Draws closer and sweeps wider from that coast;
Last, his rent sail refits, and to the deep
His shattered prow uncomforted puts back.
Yet as he goes he ponders at the helm
Of that bright island; where he feared to touch,
His spirit readventures; and for years,
Where by his wife he slumbers safe at home,
Thoughts of that land revisit him; he sees
The eternal mountains beckon, and awakes
Yearning for that far home that might have been.
You'll carry the flag, the old torn flag,
You'll carry the flag to the fore,
Through the press and the strain and the deadly rain Where the fathers passed of yore.
And you'll stand by the flag, when the faint hearts fly, And the best that you have, you'll give;
For the men who have learnt for a cause to die
Are the men who learn to live.
AD AMICVM ABSENTEM
Nos barathrum Oceani immensum, seriesque dierum, nos lacrimae, laudes heroum et crimina regum dissociant: rerum multos revoluta per annos fata, velut flumen, rapiunt cunabula nostra diversos magis atque magis seiuncta per orbes. ac veluti nautis primo cum litus Eoo
apparet, neque quale fuat dignoscere possunt, tu mihi sic novus es, sic anceps deferor hospes : circumagi videor Circaeum ut navita litus, spumea saxa procul, montes, fluvialia claustra prospicere, e terraque sonos audire vocantum. multa movens nova mente inter spes atque timores, nunc adit observans, refugit nunc avius oram navita; tum demum velis petit alta refectis, et quassam avertit proram, solaminis expers. sed terrae radians abeunti occurrit imago, dum clavum regit, et quo dudum appellere pavit, mens iterum explorare audet; longosque per annos sub lare dum tuto fruitur cum coniuge somnis, pulchra redit menti species, montesque vocare aeternos putat, et studio experrectus inani
“illa” inquit “longinqua domus si nostra fuisset.”
Vexillum, quamquam laceris hiat undique pannis
in primas acies armaque prima feres,
qua stipata cohors, qua ferreus ingruit imber
quam sibi maiores instituere viam.
vexillo adstabis, dum mollia corda fugantur,
optima pars illi est nempe dicanda tui.
qui didicere bona pro causa occumbere morte,
nimirum hi discunt, quid sibi vita velit.
THE DAY AFTER THE STORM
Who has not walked upon the shore,
And who does not the morning know,
The day the angry gale is o'er,
The hour the wind has ceased to blow?
The horses of the strong south-west
Are pastured round his tropic tent,
Careless how long the ocean's breast
Sob on and sigh for passion spent.
The frightened birds, that fled inland
To house in rock and tower and tree,
Are gathering on the peaceful strand,
To tempt again the sunny sea;
Whereon the timid ships steal out
And laugh to find their foe asleep
That lately scattered them about,
And drave them to the fold like sheep.
The snow-white clouds he northward chased
Break into phalanx, line, and band:
All one way to the south they haste,
The south, their pleasant fatherland.
From distant hills their shadows creep
Arrive in turn and mount the lea,
And flit across the downs, and leap
Sheer off the cliff upon the sea;
And sail and sail far out of sight.
But still I watch their fleecy trains,
That piling all the south with light,
Dapple in France the fertile plains.
A star look'd down from heaven and loved a flower
Grown in earth's garden-loved it for an hour.
Let eyes that trace his orbit in the spheres
Refuse not, to a ruin'd rosebud, tears.
δεινῶν τ ̓ ἄημα πνευμάτων ἐκοίμισε
στένοντα πόντον
Quis non Oceani est uda spatiatus in ora
quis nescit primo gaudia nata die,
desiit ut cladem tempestas atra minari,
pressaque sopiti flaminis ira tacet?
qua torrente procul tentoria fixit harena,
immunes pascit turbidus Auster equos,
securus quamvis post tantos aegra furores
suspiret crebris questibus unda maris.
quae modo terrarum petierunt intima, si qua
saxa dabant nidos, porticus, arbor, aves,
pacato celeres glomerant in litore passus,
aestivis ausae credere rursus aquis.
nec mora: prorepunt posita formidine puppes,
quas iuvat infestum conticuisse salum,
quod pepulit modo dispersas, egitque trementes,
pastor ut in tutum cogit ovile pecus.
ordinibus niveis vel spissae more phalangis
nubila, sub gelidum nuper abacta polum,
certatim incedunt pariter, cursuque citato
Australes repetunt, litora nota, domos.
proiciunt ortas longinquis montibus umbras,
sufficiuntque acies, prataque summa legunt,
mox simul invadunt campum, et de rupibus altis
in pelagi vastas praecipitantur aquas,
aeraque immensum tranant, falluntque tuentem :-
me spectare tamen vellera cana iuvat,
quae caelum adgestis cumulis Australe coronant,
et variant segetes, Gallia culta, tuas.
Terrestri nascentem horto breve tempus amavit caelo despiciens stella corusca rosam.
quisquis es, o sublime volans qui suspicis astrum, debita pro spreto lacrima flore cadat.
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