I shall cheat a little a do one of my favorite Horace poems. It is II. XIV. I will post a translation first and a comment later.
XIV
Eheu fugaces, Postume, Postume,
labuntur anni nec pietas moram
rugis et instanti senectae
adferet indomitaeque morti,
non, si trecenis quotquot eunt dies, 5
amice, places inlacrimabilem
Plutona tauris, qui ter amplum
Geryonen Tityonque tristi
compescit unda, scilicet omnibus
quicumque terrae munere uescimur 10
enauiganda, siue reges
siue inopes erimus coloni.
Frustra cruento Marte carebimus
fractisque rauci fluctibus Hadriae,
frustra per autumnos nocentem 15
corporibus metuemus Austrum:
uisendus ater flumine languido
Cocytos errans et Danai genus
infame damnatusque longi
Sisyphus Aeolides laboris. 20
Linquenda tellus et domus et placens
uxor, neque harum quas colis arborum
te praeter inuisas cupressos
ulla breuem dominum sequetur;
absumet heres Caecuba dignior 25
seruata centum clauibus et mero
tinguet pauimentum superbo,
pontificum potiore cenis.
Alas, Postume, Postume,
the fleeting years slip by
and piety cannot bring delay to wrinkles
or approaching old age or unconquerable death.
not even with 300 bulls for however many days there are,
friend, can you appease the pitiless Pluto, who restrains the thrice ample Geryon andTityon
with the stream that certainly is to be navigated by everyone
who feeds on the gifts of the earth, whether they are kings
or poor farmers.
In vain do we flee from cruel Mars
and the crashing waves of the raucous Hadriatic
In vain do we fear the South Wind harming our bodies.
We must see it all, The black Cocytus
wandering in its sluggish flow
and the Infamous Danai clan and Sysiphus
damned to long toil.
The soil and the home and the pleasing wife are to be left behind,
nor will any of the trees you care for, except for the hated cypress,
follow their brief master:
And the heir, more worthy (for sure), will consume the Caecuban wine
which was guarded by a thousand keys.
And he will stain the pavement with the proud wine, a wine better than that used at the dinners of the priests.
Here is help for the discipuli.
http://polyaplatinlit07-08.wikispaces.c ... +Odes+2.14
When a true genius appears, you can know him by this sign: that all the dunces are in a confederacy against him. ~Swift