Thursday, March 01, 2012

 

Nomen Beati

Horace, Odes 4.9.45-52 (tr. Niall Rudd):
One would not be right to call happy the man of many possessions; the title of happy is more rightly claimed by the man who has the intelligence to make wise use of the gods' gifts and to put up with the rigours of poverty, who fears disgrace worse than death, and is not afraid to die for his dear friends or his native land.

non possidentem multa vocaveris
recte beatum; rectius occupat
    nomen beati, qui deorum
        muneribus sapienter uti

duramque callet pauperiem pati
peiusque leto flagitium timet,
    non ille pro caris amicis
        aut patria timidus perire.
In Jonathan Swift's translation:
Him for a happy man I own,
Whose fortune is not overgrown;
And happy he who wisely knows
To use the gifts that Heaven bestows;
Or, if it please the powers divine,
Can suffer want and not repine.
The man who infamy to shun
Into the arms of death would run;
That man is ready to defend,
With life, his country or his friend.



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