New in Translations:
- T. R. Glover, 1932, Horace: A Return to Allegiance
New in Articles:
- Percy Lubbock, 1924, “A Lesson of Horace”
New in Translations:
New in Articles:
Alan Jacobs (@ayjay) on Reading Horace.
New in Translations:
New in Articles:
From Walter Bagehot’s “Béranger,” 1857:
The point in which Béranger most resembles Horace is that which is the most essential in the characters of them both – their geniality. This is the very essence of the poems of society; it springs in the verses of amusement, it harmonises with acquiescing sympathy the poems of indifference. And yet few qualities in writing are so rare. A certain malevolence enters into literary ink; the point of the pen pricks. Pope is the very best example of this. With every desire to imitate Horace, he cannot touch any of his subjects, or any kindred subjects, without infusing a bitter ingredient. It is not given to the children of men to be philosophers without envy. Lookers-on can hardly bear the spectacle of the great world. If you watch the carriages rolling down to the House of Lords, you will try to depreciate the House of Lords. Idleness is cynical. Both Béranger and Horace are exceptions to this. Both enjoy the roll of the wheels; both love the glitter of the carriages; neither is angry at the sun. Each knows that he is as happy as he can be – that he is all that he can be in his contemplative philosophy. In his means of expression for the purpose in hand, the Frenchman has the advantage. The Latin language is clumsy. Light pleasure was an exotic in the Roman world; the terms in which you strive to describe it suit rather the shrill camp and droning law-court. In English, as we hinted just now, we have this too. Business is in our words; a too heavy sense clogs our literature; even in a writer so apt as Pope at the finesse of words, you feel that the solid Gothic roots impede him. It is difficult not to be cumbrous. The horse may be fleet and light, but the wheels are ponderous and the road goes heavily. Béranger certainly has not this difficulty; nobody ever denied that a Frenchman could be light, that the French language was adapted for levity.
Walter Bagehot on Horace (From “Béranger,” 1857):
…the spirit of Horace is alive, and as potent as that of any man. His tone is that of prime ministers; his easy philosophy is that of courts and parliaments; you may hear his words where no other foreign words are ever heard. He is but the extreme and perfect type of a whole class of writers, some of whom exist in every literary age, and who give an expression to what we may call the poetry of equanimity, that is, the world’s view of itself; its self-satisfaction, its conviction that you must bear what comes, not hope for much, think some evil, never be excited, admire little, and then you will be at peace. This creed does not sound attractive in description. Nothing, it has been said, is so easy as to be “religious on paper”: on the other hand, it is rather difficult to be worldly in speculation; the mind of man, when its daily maxims are put before it, revolts from anything so stupid, so mean, so poor. It requires a consummate art to reconcile men in print to that moderate and insidious philosophy which creeps into all hearts, colours all speech, influences all action. We may not stiffen commonsense into a creed; our very ambition forbids: —
It hears a voice within us tell:
“Calm’s not life’s crown, though calm is well,“
’Tis all perhaps which man acquires;
But ’tis not what our youth desires”.
Still a great artist may succeed in making “calm” interesting. Equanimity has its place in literature; the poetry of equipoise is possible.
By the time of his death in 1955, Sir Ronald Storrs had collected about 350 translations of the Ode to Pyrrha, including 150 to English, 54 to French, 35 to Italian, 24 to German, 14 to Spanish — and the others to some 25 different languages. By 1959, Sir Charles Tennyson had found 100 additional translations to several languages (about 30 to English), bringing the total to 451. Then, following instructions left by Storrs, he published Ad Pyrrham: A Polyglot Collection of Translations of Horace’s Ode to Pyrrha, with an introduction by Storrs and a selection of the translations. The selection aimed at covering “as wide a range as possible in country, period and style,” but Tennyson worried about monotony, and chose to include only 63 translations to English, 20 to French, 12 to Italian, 13 to German, 15 to Spanish, two to Welsh, and one to each of 19 other languages. Thinking that the whole set of English translations might not be monotonous, I decided to put together a collection of as many as I could find. Yet, after having found 417 translations, I was reminded of what W. H. Auden once wrote (paraphrasing Paul Valéry): “A poem is never finished, only abandoned.”
The collection can be found in Collections of Translations.
Remembering Nicholas Rescher, A Gentle Giant by John Haldane
“This little collection is dedicated above all to those persons who have no system and belong to no party and are therefore still free to doubt whatever is doubtful and to maintain what is not.” (Paul Valéry, Foreword to Outlook for Intelligence)
Hod Hasharon, Israel, 2024
The Humanity of Horace by Llewelyn Morgan.
All the President’s Mien by Theodore Dalrymple.
Theodore Dalrymple on The Food Police.
Jacques Barzun on Administering and the Law:
Administering as opposed to administration may be defined by this example. Some years ago a distinguished physician in Boston was doing research on several related afflictions characterized by anemia. He developed a new treatment, which included a strictly controlled diet. One day, entering a patient’s room, he met the nurse coming out with the lunch tray, where he saw each of the prescribed dishes eaten only in part or not at all. He had a sudden revelation of his oversight. The carefully measured gluten, proteins, calories, and vitamins were going into his research paper, not into his patients. He had been making policy; he had not been administering it.
Patrick Kurp on Joseph Epstein
Collections of English Translations of the Odes. Update: 53 Translations Added!
Another year! – another deadly blow!
Another mighty Empire overthrown!
And We are left, or shall be left, alone;
The last that dare to struggle with the Foe.
‘Tis well! from this day forward we shall know.
That in ourselves our safety must be sought;
That by our own right hands it must be wrought;
That we must stand unpropped, or be laid low.
O dastard whom such foretaste doth not cheer!
We shall exult, if they who rule the land.
Be men who hold its many blessings dear,
Wise, upright, valiant; not a servile band,
Who are to judge of danger which they fear,
And honour which they do not understand.
(William Wordsworth, November, 1806)
Broken Codes of Conduct by Theodore Dalrymple.
New Collection of Translations: 232 English Translations of Horace’s Persicos Odi (Odes I.38). Including Translations by: William Cowper, Hartley Coleridge, William Makepeace Thackeray, C. S. Calverley, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Austin Dobson, Willa Cather, Franklin P. Adams, Ford Madox Ford, and Muriel Spark.
New Collection of Translations:
Collections of English Translations of the Odes (Updated):
One new collection, 50 translations added to the other collections since the last update.
Who are you, shipwrecked man? Leontichus found My corpse on the shore and over it heaped this mound, Bewailing his own sad life, for neither is he At peace, but flits like a sea-gull over the sea. —Challimachus (tr. Maurice Baring)
New Collection of Translations:
Collections of English Translations of the Odes (Updated):
New Collection of Translations:
Collections of English Translations of the Odes (Updated):