Quinto Orazio Flacco, Epodi (II).            Latino     Italiano     Inglese    Olandese    Spagnolo
"Happy the man who, far away from business cares, like the pristine race of mortals, works his ancestral acres with his steers, from all money-lending free; who is not, as a soldier, roused by the wild clarion, nor dreads the angry sea; he avoids the Forum and proud thresholds of more powerful citizens; and so he either weds his lofty poplar-trees to well-grown vines, or in secluded dale looks out upon the ranging herds of lowing cattle, and, cutting off useless branches with the pruning-knife, engrafts more fruitful ones, or stores away pressed honey in clean jars, or shears the helpless sheep. Or when Autumn in the fields has reared his head crowned with ripened fruits, how he delights to pluck the grafted pears, and grapes that with the purple vie, with which to honour thee, Priapus, and thee, Father Silvanus, guardian of boundaries. 'Tis pleasant, now to lie beneath some ancient ilex-tree, now on the matted turf. Meanwhile the rills glide between their high banks; birds warble in the woods; the fountains plash with their flowing waters, a sound to invite soft slumbers. But when the wintry season of thundering Jove brings rains and snow, with his pack of hounds one either drives fierce boars from here and there into the waiting toils, or on polished pole stretches wide-meshed nets, a snare for greedy thrushes, and catches with the noose the timid hare and the crane that comes from far--sweet prizes! Amid such joys, who does not forget the wretched cares that passion brings? But if a modest wife shall do her part in tending home and children dear, like to some Sabine woman or the well-tanned mate of sturdy Apulian, piling high the sacred hearth with seasoned firewood against the coming of her weary husband, penning the frisking flock in wattled fold, draining their swelling udders, and, drawing forth this year's sweet vintage from the jar, prepare an unboughtmeal - then not Lucrine oysters would please me more, nor scar, nor turbot, should winter, thundering on the eastern waves, turn them to our coasts; not Afric fowl nor Ionian pheasant would make for me a repast more savoury than olives gathered from the richest branches of the trees, or the plant of the meadow-loving sorrel, and mallows wholesome to the ailing body, or than a lamb slain at the feast of Terminus, or a kid rescued from the wolf. Amid such feasts, what joy to see the sheep hurrying homeward from pasture, to see the wearied oxen dragging along the upturned plowshare on their listless necks, and the home-bred slaves, troop of a wealthy house, ranged around the gleaming Lares!" When the usurer Alfius had uttered this, on the very point of beginning the farmer's life, he called in all his funds upon the Ides -- and on the Kalends seeks to put them out again! (Quinto Orazio Flacco, Gli Epodi II).