Translation of Horace Ode 4.7

The Odes of Horace – IV.7

Fallen away the snows; to the fields now grass returns
And leaves to the trees;
The earth goes through its changes, and to within its banks withdrawing
The once-swollen river flows past;

Daring Grace, with the Nymphs and her twin sisters, shuns clothes
To lead a choral dance.
Do not hope for immortality warns the passing year and the hour
Which hounds and hastens the fresh-born day.

Chill winter’s becalmed; spring will be trampled by summer
And summer itself to be pummelled prepares
As fruit-bearing autumn pours forth, and soon
Winter stands back inert.

Yet how quickly new moons repair waning heavens!
We, when we sink down
To where dutiful Aeneas, to where rich Tullus and Ancus are
Dust and shadows are we.

Who knows whether the gods above will add time tomorrow
To our sum today?
Only those things you give to your own kind soul, Torquatus,
Will escape the hands of a greedy heir.

For when once you are dead and Minos his judgement
About you has given
Not you your family, not you your eloquence, nor you your
Piety they will restore;

Not even Diana from the underworld dark
Chaste Hippolytus frees,
Nor can strong Theseus from dearest Pirithous break
The Lethean chains.

Notes:

Ode:
An ode is a type of ancient Greek lyric poetry, sung to the accompaniment by a lyre. In classical times, the lyric poet was distinguished from the dramatist; from the writer of verses which were recited rather than sung; from the elegist whose verse was accompanied by the flute; and from the epic poet. The lyric poetry of Horace, his four books of Odes, were not written to be sung but were an attempt to appropriate the Greek lyric meters into Latin and the life of Rome during the time of Augustus (1st century BC).

The Three Graces:
Goddesses personifying aspects of loveliness, the Graces often appear as attendants of Aphrodite. In Ovid, the Roman goddess of flowers tells that “as soon as the dewy frost is shaken from the leaves … the Graces come, twining flowers into baskets.”

Nymphs:
The Nymphs are divine, beautiful, creatures who animate nature and love to dance and sing.

Aeneas:
A Trojan hero who escaped from the victorious Greeks after the fall of Troy and after much travail founded the Roman race in Italy.

Tullus Hostilius (7th century BC):
The third of seven mythical kings of Rome (the first is Romulus).

Ancus Marcuis (7th century BC):
The fourth of the seven mythical kings.

Torquatus:
A friend of Horace, the person to whom the poem is addressed.

Minos:
A mythical king of Crete, who on his death was made judge of the dead souls as they enter the underworld. He would send the virtuous to Elysium and the wicked to Tartarus.

Diana:
Virgin goddess of the moon and hunting. Associated with the Greek goddess Artemis.

Hippolytus:
A son of Theseus. Hippolytus spurned the amorous advances of his step-mother Phaedra, and in revenge Phaedra told Theseus that Hippolytus had raped her. Theseus believed this, cursed Hippolytus, and Hippolytus was dragged to death by his horses when they were frightened by a sea monster. In the play by Eurpides, Hippolytus refuses to revere Aphrodite, goddess of love, and honours the Artemis, the virgin goddess of the moon and hunting. Even she, however, is unable to save Hippolytus from being dragged to death and the underworld.

Lethe:
One of several rivers in the underworld. Those who drank its waters would experience complete forgetfulness of the past.

Theseus
Mythical founder of Athens who went through various labours as did Heracles - t’was Theseus killed the Minotaur.

[After victory in war over the Athenians, the Cretan king demanded that seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls be sent to the Minotaur every nine years. The Minotaur was a half-man, half-bull who lived in a labyrinth and liked eating boys and girls. Theseus volunteered to take the place of one of the Athenian boys, with the intention to slay the monster. When he arrived in Crete, the daughter of the king, Ariadne, fell in love with him and gave him a ball of string so that he could navigate his way out of the labyrinth. Theseus killed the Minotaur, escaped, and sailed with Ariadne back to Athens. But on the way, he abandoned Ariadne on the island of Naxos. In rage, Ariadne cursed Theseus - she prayed that Theseus would forget to change the colour of his sail from black to white. Theseus had previously promised his father, Aegus, that if, when his ship returned, the sails were white then everything would be okay, but if the sails were black then Theseus’ father must understand that Theseus had died. When his father saw the black sail he was overcome with grief and threw himself into the sea, the sea thereafter being called the Aegean Sea.]

Pirithous:
King of the Lapiths, a Greek tribe, and friend of Theseus. Theseus and Pirithous had vowed to help each other win a bride. They kidnapped Helen of Troy for Theseus and for Pirithous tried to abduct Persephone from the underworld. Captured, they were held fast in chains. In time, Heracles was able to rescue Theseus, but Pirithous was destined to stay chained in the underworld forever

What follows is a famous translation by AE Housman, and the original Latin, for anyone who is interested.

Housman translation:

The snows are fled away, leaves on the shaws
And grasses in the mead renew their birth,
The river to the river-bed withdraws,
And altered is the fashion of the earth.

The Nymphs and Graces three put off their fear
And unapparelled in the woodland play.
The swift hour and the brief prime of the year
Say to the soul, Thou wast not born for aye.

Thaw follows frost; hard on the heel of spring
Treads summer sure to die, for hard on hers
Comes autumn with his apples scattering;
Then back to wintertide, when nothing stirs.

But oh, whate'er the sky-led seasons mar,
Moon upon moon rebuilds it with her beams;
Come we where Tullus and where Ancus are
And good Aeneas, we are dust and dreams.

Torquatus, if the gods in heaven shall add
The morrow to the day, what tongue has told?
Feast then thy heart, for what thy heart has had
The fingers of no heir will ever hold.

When thou descendest once the shades among,
The stern assize and equal judgment o'er,
Not thy long lineage nor thy golden tongue,
No, nor thy righteousness, shall friend thee more.

Night holds Hippolytus the pure of stain,
Diana steads him nothing, he must stay;
And Theseus leaves Pirithous in the chain
The love of comrades cannot take away.

Original text:

Diffugere nives, redeunt iam gramina campis
arboribus comae;
mutat terra vices et decrescentia ripas
flumina praetereunt;

Gratia cum Nymphis geminisque sororibus audet
ducere nuda chorus.
Inmortalia ne speres, monet annus et almum
quae rapit hora diem.

Frigora mitescunt Zephyris, ver proterit aestas
interitura, simul
pomifer autumnus fruges effuderit, et mox
bruma recurrit iners.

Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae;
nos ubi decidimus,
quo pater Aeneas, quo dives Tullus et Ancus,
pulvis et umbra sumus.

Quis scit, an adiciant hodiernae crastina summae
tempora di superi?
Cuncta manus avidas fugient heredis, amico
quae dederis animo.

Cum semel occideris et de te splendida Minos
fecerit arbitria,
non, Torquate, genus, non te facundia, non te
restituet pietas;

infernis neque enim tenebris Diana pudicum
liberat Hippolytum,
nec Lethaea valet Theseus abrumpere caro
vincula Pirithoo.