The Oxford Book of Latin Verse Part 68

FLAVIVS FELIX

circa 480 A.D.

_378. To his Patron_

SIC tibi florentes aequaeuo germine nati indolis aetheriae sidera celsa petant, sic priscos uincant atauos clarosque parentis exsuperent meritis saeclaque longa gerant, sic subolis numerum transcendat turba nepotum n.o.bilibusque iuges gaudia tanta toris: ne sterilem praestes indigno munere Musam, utque soles, largus carmina nostra foue, imperiis ut nostra tuis seruire Thalia possit et in melius personet icta chelys.

LVXORIVS

circa 500 A.D.

_379. To his Readers_

PRISCOS c.u.m haberes, quos probares, indices, lector, placere qui bonis possent modis, nostri libelli cur retexis paginam nugis refertam friuolisque sensibus, et quam tenello tiro lusi uiscere?

set forte doctis si illa cara est auribus sonat pusilli quae leporis commate nullo decora in ambitu sententiae, hanc iure quaeris et libenter incohas, uelut iocosa si theatra peruoles.

_380. The Garden of Eugetus_

HORTVS, quo faciles fluunt Napaeae, quo ludunt Dryades choro uirente, quo fouet teneras Diana Nymphas; quo Venus roseos recondit artus, quo fessus teretes Cupido flammas suspensis reficit puer pharetris, quo ferunt se Heliconides puellae; cui numquam minus est amoena frondis, cui semper redolent amoma uerni, cui fons perspicuis tener fluentis muscoso riguus salit meatu, quo dulcis auium canor resultans * * *

quidquid per Tyrias refertur urbis, hoc uno famulans loco subaptat.

_381. A Rose with a hundred Petals_

HANC puto de proprio tinxit Sol aureus ortu aut unum ex radiis maluit esse suis; uel, si etiam centum foliis rosa Cypridis exstat, fluxit in hanc omni sanguine tota Venus.

haec florum sidus, haec Lucifer almus in agris, huic odor et color est dignus honore poli.

_382. A Water Urn with a Figure of Cupid_

IGNE salutifero Veneris puer omnia flammans pro facibus facilis arte ministrat aquas.

_383. His Book's proper Place_

PARVVS n.o.bilium c.u.m liber ad domos pomposique fori scrinia publica cinctus multifido ueneris agmine, nostri defugiens pauperiem laris, quo dudum modico sordidus angulo squalebas, tineis iam prope debitus, si te despiciet turba legentium inter Romulidas et Tyrias ma.n.u.s, isto pro exsequiis claudere disticho: contentos propriis esse decet focis, quos laudis facile est inuidiam pati.

PHOCAS

circa 500 A.D. (?).

_384. Poetry and Time_

(Prefixed to his Life of Vergil)

O VETVSTATIS ueneranda custos, regios actus simul et fugacis temporum cursus docilis referre, aurea Clio, tu nihil magnum sinis interire, nil mori clarum pateris, reseruans posteris prisci monumenta saecli condita libris.

sola fucatis uariare dictis paginas nescis, set aperta quicquid ueritas prodit, recinis per aeuum simplice lingua.

tu senescentis t.i.tulos auorum flore durantis reparas iuuentae; militat uirtus tibi: te notante crimina pallent.

tu fori turbas strepitusque litis effugis dulci moderata cantu, nec r.e.t.a.r.dari pateris loquellas conpede metri.

his faue dictis: retegenda uita est uatis Etrusci, modo qui perenne Romulae uoci decus adrogauit carmine sacro.

TRANSLATIONS AND IMITATIONS

The Selection that follows needs some explanation. I have made no systematic search in the literature of translation: and it is likely enough that I have omitted renderings more beautiful, or more interesting, than some which I have included. I have not tried to do more than to collect together a few old 'favourites' of my own. Moreover I have--save for one or two examples--confined myself to the four princ.i.p.al Latin poets.

I have interpreted the word 'Imitations' rather widely. It is quite possible, for example, that Clough never read Vergil's _Lines Written in a Lecture-Room_ (Catalepton V): yet the poem of Clough which I have brought into connexion with this piece is, I think, a truer translation of it than could be found elsewhere. I will venture to hope, again, that I may be readily forgiven for placing beside Statius' famous _Invocation to Sleep_ six sonnets on a like subject from six English masters of the sonnet-form.

I have to thank the following authors and publishers for permission to reprint copyright pieces: Messrs. G. Bell & Sons (four versions by Calverley, Nos. 67, 82, 145, 149), Prof. D.A. Slater (versions of Lucretius, Nos. 66, 69, and Catullus, No. 97), Messrs. Blackwood (two pieces by the late Sir Theodore Martin, Nos. 92, 136), Prof. Ellis and Mr. John Murray (version of Catullus, No. 85), The Syndics of the Cambridge University Press and the Executors of the late Sir R.C. Jebb (version of Catullus, No. 74), Mr. L.J. Latham and Messrs. Smith Elder (version of Propertius, No. 179, from Mr. Latham's _Odes of Horace and Other Verses_), Messrs. George Allen (version of Horace from the _Ionica_ of the late William Cory, No. 148), Mr. John Murray (version of Horace by Mr. Gladstone, No. 126), Dr. T.H. Warren and Mr. John Murray (version of Vergil, No. 110), Mr. James Rhoades and Messrs. Kegan Paul (version of Vergil, No. 119), Mr. W.H. Fyfe (version of Statius, No.

262).

_44_

By the side of this Epitaph may be placed Pope's Epitaph upon Mrs.

Corbet, with Johnson's comment:

HERE rests a woman good without pretence, Blest with plain reason and with sober sense.

No conquest she, but o'er herself, desired, No arts essayed but not to be admired.

Pa.s.sion and pride were to her soul unknown, Convinced that Virtue only is our own.

So unaffected, so composed a mind, So firm, yet soft, so strong, yet so refined, Heaven, as its purest gold, by tortures tried; The saint sustained it, but the woman died.

'The subject of it', says Johnson, 'is a character not discriminated by any s.h.i.+ning or eminent peculiarities: yet that which really makes, though not the splendour, the felicity of life, and that which every wise man will choose for his final and lasting companion in the languor of age, in the quiet of privacy, when he departs weary and disgusted from the ostentatious, the volatile and the vain. Of such a character, which the dull overlook, and the gay despise, it was fit that the value should be made known and the dignity established.'

_66_

(Beginning at the third paragraph, _Illud in his rebus..._)

BUT here's the rub. There soon may come a time You'll count right reason treason and the prime Of mind the spring of guilt; whereas more oft In blind Religion are the seeds of crime.

Think how at Aulis to the Trivian Maid The hero-kings of Greece their homage paid, The flower of men, whose impious piety Iphiana.s.sa on the altar laid.

Behold the bride! upon her head the crown Of ritual, that from either cheek let down An equal streamer. But cold rapture hers As on her father's face she marked the frown:

A frown of anguish: at his side the men Of doom, and in their hands, screened from her ken, Death; and her countrymen shed tears to see The lamb, poor victim, in the lions' den.