Horace: The Epistles
Book I: Epistle XII
Translated by A. S. Kline © Copyright 2005 All Rights Reserved
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Contents
BkIEpXII:1-29 An introduction and an exhortation
Iccius, if you’re using the income you collect
From Agrippa’s Sicilian estates, as you ought,
Jove couldn’t bless you more. Stop complaining:
He’s not poor whose enjoyment of things suffices.
If your lungs, stomach and feet are healthy, royal
Wealth can add nothing. And if you happen to be
Abstemious amongst good things, living on nettles
And vegetables, you’d still live that way, even if
Fate’s stream were suddenly to drench you with gold,
Either because money can’t alter your nature,
Or because you prize one thing, virtue, above all.
We wonder at Democritus’ herds spoiling his meadows
And crops, while his swift mind strayed far from his body:
As you with the contagious itch for wealth around you,
Still betray nothing mean, and aim for the sublime:
What forces constrain the sea, what regulates the year:
Whether planets wander and stray at will, or by law,
What hides the moon’s disc in darkness, what reveals it:
The meaning, the effects, of nature’s harmonious
Discord: is Empedocles crazy or subtle
Stertinius ? Whether you’re ‘murdering’ fish or only
Leeks and onions, greet Pompeius Grosphus, give freely
If he asks: he’ll only request what’s right and proper.
When good men are in need, friendship’s cheap at the price.
So you’re in touch with how things are going in Rome,
Cantabria’s fallen to Agrippa’s valour,
Armenia to Tiberius’: Phraates submits
On his knees to Caesar’s imperial rule: golden
Plenty pours her horn, full of fruits, on Italy.
End of Book I Epistle XII