Odes With the Latin Text [Paperback]

Timeless meditations on the subjects of wine, parties, birthdays, love, and friendship, Horace’sOdes, in the words of classicist Donald Carne-Ross, make the “commonplace notable, even luminous.” This edition reproduces the highly lauded translation by James Michie. “For almost forty years,” poet and literary critic John Hollander notes, “James Michie’s brilliant translations of Horace have remained fresh as well as strong, and responsive to the varying lights and darks of the originals. It is a pleasure to have them newly available.”“Horace has always been one of my favourite poets, and I have often toyed with the idea of translating him.
After reading Michie’s translation, however, I see that I must dismiss the idea. I do not expect to read a better one.” —W. H. AudenJames Michiewas born in 1927 and studied classics at Trinity College, Oxford. His other translations includeThe Poems of CatullusandVirgil’s Eclogues. His Collected Poems was awarded the Hawthornden Prize.

Gregson Davisis Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Classics and Comparative Literature at Duke University and the author ofPolyhymnia: The Rhetoric of Horatian Lyric Discourse.Odes Book One
Carminum Liber Primus

I
Maecenas atavis edite regibus, o et praesidium et dulce decus meum, sunt quos curriculo pulverem Olympicum collegisse iuvat, metaque fervidis evitata rotis palmaque nobilis terrarum dominos evehit ad deos; hunc, si mobilium turba Quiritium certat tergeminis tollere honoribus; illum, si proprio condidit horreo quidquid de Libycis verritur areis. gaudentem patrios findere sarculo agros Attalicis condicionibus numquam dimoveas ut trabe Cypria Myrtoum pavidus nauta secet mare. luctantem Icariis fluctibus Africum mercator metuens otium et oppidi laudat rura sui; mox reficit ratis quassas, indocilis pauperiem pati. est qui nec veteris pol“+