Original:
Horace Ode 2.14
Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti,
non, si trecenis quotquot eunt dies,
amice, places inlacrimabilem
Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
Geryonen Tityonque tristi
compescit unda, scilicet omnibus
quicumque terrae munere uescimur
enauiganda, siue reges
siue inopes erimus coloni.
Frustra cruento Marte carebimus
fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
frustra per autumnos nocentem
corporibus metuemus Austrum:
uisendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
infame d**natusque longi
Sisyphus Aeolides laboris.
Linquenda tellus et domus et placens
uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum
te praeter inuisas cupressos
ulla breuem dominum sequetur;
absumet heres Caecuba dignior
seruata centum clauibus et mero
tinguet pauimentum superbo,
pontificum potiore cenis.
translated by Laurel Mulherin:
Horace Ode 2.14
Inevitability
Woe! Postumus, Postumus
The Years are flying from you
Virtue and devotion shall not delay this wrinkled age
For unconquered are the hands of death
You may try, my friend, to sacrifice hecatombs
To soothe the tearless death:
Pluto, he who ensnares even
Ample Tityus and Geryon
But there are gloomy waters which all must travel
All those who have tasted the riches of the earth
Whether they ruled as arrogant kings
Or were humble workers of the land
Vainly we flee the blood of war
And the storms of the Adriatic
Vainly we flee the dreaded autumn
And the south wind which chills the soul
You will brave the thick stagnant waters of the Cocytus
Where ill-famed Danaus, accursed Aeolus'
Son ancient Sisyphus
Are condemned to endless toil
Your land, your wife, your home
You will leave
Bring only the loathed cypress
No other tree shall follow their master
And he shall squander what you treasured
Your heir, being a worthier soul
Bursting the locks to spill the Caecuban wines
To dye your marble floors