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TO THE FOUNTAIN OF BANDUSIA
O FOUNTAIN of Bandusia! | |
| Whence crystal waters flow, | |
| With garlands gay and wine I ’ll pay | |
| The sacrifice I owe; | |
| A sportive kid with budding horns | 5 |
| I have, whose crimson blood | |
| Anon shall dye and sanctify | |
| Thy cool and babbling flood. | |
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| O fountain of Bandusia! | |
| The Dog-star’s hateful spell | 10 |
| No evil brings into the springs | |
| That from thy bosom well; | |
| Here oxen, wearied by the plow, | |
| The roving cattle here | |
| Hasten in quest of certain rest, | 15 |
| And quaff thy gracious cheer. | |
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| O fountain of Bandusia! | |
| Ennobled shalt thou be, | |
| For I shall sing the joys that spring | |
| Beneath yon ilex-tree. | 20 |
| Yes, fountain of Bandusia, | |
| Posterity shall know | |
| The cooling brooks that from thy nooks | |
| Singing and dancing go. | |
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TO LEUCONÖE
I
WHAT end the gods may have ordained for me, | 25 |
| And what for thee, | |
| Seek not to learn, Leuconöe,—we may not know. | |
| Chaldean tables cannot bring us rest. | |
| ’T is for the best | |
| To bear in patience what may come, or weal or woe. | 30 |
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| If for more winters our poor lot is cast, | |
| Or this the last, | |
| Which on the crumbling rocks has dashed Etruscan seas, | |
| Strain clear the wine; this life is short, at best. | |
| Take hope with zest, | 35 |
| And, trusting not To-morrow, snatch To-day for ease! | |
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TO LEUCONÖE
II
SEEK not, Leuconöe, to know how long you ’re going to live yet, | |
| What boons the gods will yet withhold, or what they ’re going to give yet; | |
| For Jupiter will have his way, despite how much we worry:— | |
| Some will hang on for many a day, and some die in a hurry. | 40 |
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| The wisest thing for you to do is to embark this diem | |
| Upon a merry escapade with some such bard as I am. | |
| And while we sport I ’ll reel you off such odes as shall surprise ye; | |
| To-morrow, when the headache comes,—well, then I ’ll satirize ye! | |
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