Monday, November 14, 2011

Exegi monumentum aere perennius

Horace, Ode 3.30

Exegi monumentum aere perennius
regalique situ pyramidum altius,
quod non imber edax, non Aquilo impotens
possit diruere aut innumerabilis
annorum series et fuga temporum.
Non omnis moriar multaque pars mei
vitabit Libitinam; usque ego postera
crescam laude recens. Dum Capitolium
scandet cum tacita virgine pontifex,
dicar, qua violens obstrepit Aufidus
et qua pauper aquae Daunus agrestium
regnavit populorum, ex humili potens,
princeps Aeolium carmen ad Italos
deduxisse modos. Sume superbiam
quaesitam meritis et mihi Delphica
lauro cinge volens, Melpomene, comam.

I have completed a monument more lasting than bronze
and loftier than the kingly structure of the pyramids,
which neither consuming rain nor the headstrong North East wind
is able to destroy, nor the countless
succession of years and the flight of ages.
I will not wholly die and a great part of me
will evade the goddess of death; on and on I,
fresh with ensuing praise, will thrive. As long as
the pontifex ascends the Capitoline with a silent virgin,
I will be spoken of, where the Aufidus roars
and where Daunus, poor in water,
ruled his rustic people, powerful from a humble origin,
as the first to have brought Aeolian song into
Italian meters. Accept the proud honor
obtained by your merits and with a Delphic laurel,
Melpomene, willingly encircle my locks.
              Translated by me (E.M.H), November 2011


We're just finishing up Book 3 of the Odes in my Horace class. This is one of my perennial (no pun intended) favorites. The ode, the final poem of the three book collection, is composed in the first Asclepiadean meter, which only occurs elsewhere at Ode 1.1 (a nice metrical bookend, of sorts).

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