EPÍSTOLA II
A LOLIO
A LOLIO
Mientras en Roma,
Lolio, tú declamas,
Yo en
Preneste otra vez repaso a Homero,
EI cual, mejor
que Crántor y Crisipo,
Lo que es
útil enséñanos y honesto:
Oye, si no
te canso, en qué me fundo.
La historia
que refiere et largo duelo
Que
encendieran de Paris los amores
Un día entre
los frigios y los griegos,
Un cuadro es
fiel de las pasiones locas
Que agitan a
los reyes y a los reinos.
Antenor
quiere que se entregue a Helena,
De la guerra
quitando así el pretexto,
Y de Paris
dice que su dicha misma
Nadie le hará
comprar a tan gran precio.
Néstor
calmar pretende los disturbios
De Peleo
entre el hijo y el de Atreo:
A uno ciega
el amor, a ambos la ira;
Riñen los
reyes, páganlo los pueblos,
Y liviandad,
furor, sedición, dolo,
Reinan fuera
de Troya y reinan dentro.
De valor y
prudencia la Odisea
Nos presenta
en Ulises un modelo;
En aquel
sabio que, rendida Troya,
Los usos
estudió de muchos pueblos,
Y a Itaca
con su gente regresando,
Cruzó anchos
mares, arrostró mil riesgos,
De amarga
adversidad entre las ondas
Sobrenadando
siempre su denuedo.
Sirenas
evitó, filtros de Circe
No apuró cual
sus locos compañeros,
Pues a hacerlo,
a las bestias parecido
Que
revolcarse gustan en el cieno,
También él de
la impúdica ramera
Gemido
habría bajo el triste imperio.
Nosotros,
turba estéril y baldía,
Para comer
tan solo somos buenos,
Como de Penelope
los amantes,
O de Alcino
los torpes palaciegos
Que, sólo
atentos al placer, dejaban
Al mediodía el
regalado lecho.
Y que apenas
podían con los sones
Del laúd
blando desterrar el tedio.
Levántanse
de noche los ladrones
Para matar,
y ¿no estarás despierto
Para salvarte
tú? Sano no corres
Sin ver que
luego has de correr enfermo.
Si antes de
amanecer no pides libros,
Y a lo útil
no aplicas y a lo bueno,
En largo
insomnio verdinegra envidia
O ardiente
amor destrozará tu pecho.
¿Quitas lo
que en un ojo te incomoda
Y difieres
curar años enteros
La dolencia
que el alma te consume?
Quien bien
empieza la mitad ha hecho.
A la virtud
aspira pues; empieza;
Que el que
de vivir bien aplaza el tiempo,
Imita al
aldeano que esperaba
Para pasar un
río a verle seco.
Y el río aún
corre, y correrá por siempre.
Uno se afana
por juntar dinero;
Otro en pos
corre de consorte rica
Que a su familia
dé vástagos nuevos;
Otro descuaja
bosques con la reja;
Pero quien
lo que basta a su sustento
Logró, ¿a qué
anhela más? ¿Curaron nunca
Pingües tierras,
alcázares soberbios,
O montones
enormes de oro y plata,
Las
dolencias del alma o las del cuerpo?
¿Cómo se ha
de gozar lo que se tiene
Si el cuerpo
o el espíritu está enfermo?
Así los
bienes de fortuna sirven
A aquel a
quien deseo agita o miedo,
Como un
cuadro a quien sufre de los ojos,
Como a un
gotoso inútiles fomentos,
O al que un
tumor padece en un oído
De blanda
lira los suaves ecos.
Si el vaso
no está limpio, prontamente
Se avinagra
el licor que se echa dentro.
Huye el
placer que con dolor se compra:
Siempre es
pobre el avaro; a tus deseos,
Cuerdo, un
término pon; al envidioso
Las carnes
come el bienestar ajeno;
Y no
inventaron sículos tiranos
Mayor que el
de la envidia otro tormento.
Pesará al
iracundo haber cedido
Tal vez a
sugestiones del despecho,
O para
aplacar odios no vengados.
Empleado tal
vez medios violentos.
La cólera
furor que dura poco:
O esclava es
o tirana; ponla en freno
Pues, y de
duros hierros bien la abruma.
Enseña al
fiel bridón picador diestro
A obedecer
la mano que le guía;
Y si ladró
una vez en patio estrecho
Ante la piel
de un ciervo, ágil cachorro,
En los
bosques después acosa ciervos.
Jóven ahora,
cuida en tu alma pura
De grabar
hondamente estos preceptos,
Y de
entregaste a buenos directores.
De lo que en
él se echó cuando era nuevo
Largo tiempo
el olor conserva el barro.
De la virtud
marchando en el sendero,
No el paso
aflojaré si te adelanto,
EPISTLE II
TO LOLLIUS
WHILE you,
my Lollius, on some chosen theme
With
youthful eloquence at Rome declaim,
I read the
Grecian poet o'er again,
Whose works
the beautiful and base contain;
Of vice and
virtue more instructive rules,
Than all the
sober sages of the schools.
Why thus I
think, if not engag'd, attend,
And,
Lollius, hear the reasons of your friend.
The
well-wrought fable, that sublimely shows
The loves of
Paris, and the lengthen'd woes
Of Greece in
arms, presents, as on a stage,
The giddy tumults
and the foolish rage
Of kings and
people. Hear Antenor's scheme;
Cut off the
cause of war, restore the dame;
But Paris
treats this counsel with disdain,
Nor will be
forc'd in happiness to reign;
While hoary
Nestor, by experience wise,
To reconcile
the angry monarchs tries.
His injur'd
love the son of Peleus fires,
And equal
passion, equal rage inspires
The breasts
of both. When doting monarchs urge
Unsound
resolves, their subjects feel the scourge.
Trojans and
Greeks, seditious, base, unjust,
Offend alike
in violence and lust.
To show what
wisdom and what sense can do,
The poet
sets Ulysses in our view,
Who conquer'd
Troy, and with sagacious men
Saw various
towns and polities of men :
While for
himself, and for his native train,
He seeks a
passage through the boundless main,
In perils
plung'd, the patient hero braves
His adverse
fate, and buoys above the waves.
You know the
Siren's songs, and Circe's draught,
Which had
he, senseless and intemperate, quaff’d
With his
companions, he like them, had been
The brutal
vassal of an harlot qeeen;
Had liv’d a
dog, bebas’d to vile desire.
Or loathsome
swine, and grovel’d in the mire.
But we, mere
numbers in the book of life,
Like those
who boldly woo’d our hero’s wife,
Born to
consume the fruits of earth; in truth,
As vain and
idle as Pheacia’s youth;
Mere outside
all, to fill the mighty void
Of life, in
dress and equipage employ'd,
Who sleep
till mid-day, and with melting aits
Of empty
music sooth away our cares.
Rogues
nightly rise to murder men for pelf,
Will you not
rouse you to preserve yourself?
But though
in health you doze away your days,
You run,
when puff'd with dropsical disease.
Unless you
light your early lamp, to find
A moral book
; unless you form your mind
To nobler
studies, you shall forfeit rest,
And love or
envy shall distract your breast.
For the hurt
eye an instant cure you find;
Then why
neglect, for years, the sickening mind ?
Dare to be
wise; begin; for, once begun,
Your task is
easy; half the work is done;
And sure the
man, who has it in his power
To practise
virtue, and protracts the hour,
Waits, like
the rustic, till the river dried:
Still glides
the river, and will ever glide.
For wealth,
and wives of fruitfulness we toil;
We stub the
forest, and reclaim the soil.
Bless'd with
a competence, why wish for more?
Nor house,
nor lands, nor heaps of labour’d ore
Can give
their feverish lord one moment's rest,
Or drive one
sorrow from his anxious breast;
The fond
possessor must be bless’d with health,
Who rightly
means to use his hoarded wealth.
Houses and
riches gratify the breast
For lucre
lusting, or with fear deprest.
As pictures,
glowing with a vivid light,
With painful
pleasure charm a blemish’d sight;
As chafing
sooths the gout, or music cheers
The tingling
organs of imposthum’d ears.
Your wine grows
acid when the cask is foul:
Learn the
strong sense of pleasure to control;
With
virtuous pride its blandishments disdain;
Hurtful is
pleasure, when it’s bought with pain.
He wants for
ever, who would more acquire;
Set certain
limits to your wild desire.
The man, who
envies, must behold with pain
Another’s
joys, and sicken at his gain;
Nor could
Sicilia’s tyrants ever find
A greater
torment than an envious mind.
The man,
unable to control his ire,
Shall wish
undone what hate and wrath inspire.
To sate his
rage precipitate he flies,
Yet in his
breast his rage unsated lies.
Anger's a
shorter madness of the mind;
Subdue the
tyrant, and in fetters bind.
The docile
colt is form’d with gentle skill
To move
obedient to his rider’s will.
In the loud
hall the hound is taught to bay
The
buck-skin trail’d, then challenges his prey
Through the
wild woods. Thus, in your hour of youth,
From pure
instruction quaff the words of truth.
The odours
of the wine, that first shall stain
The virgin
vessel, it shall long retain.
Whether you
prove a lagger in the race,
Or with a
vigorous ardour urge your pace,
I shalI
maintain my usual rate; no more;
Nor wait for
those behind, nor press on those before.
EPISTULA II
Troiani
belli scriptorem, Maxime Lolli,
dum tu
declamas Romae, Praeneste relegi;
qui, quid
sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,
plenius ac
melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicit.
Cur ita
crediderim, nisi quid te distinet, audi. [5]
Fabula, qua
Paridis propter narratur amorem
Graecia
barbariae lento conlisa duello,
stultorum
regum et populorum continet aestum.
Antenor
censet belli praecidere causam;
quid Paris?
Vt saluus regnet uiuatque beatus [10]
cogi posse
negat. Nestor componere litis
inter
Pelidem festinat et inter Atriden;
hunc amor,
ira quidem communiter urit utrumque.
Quidquid
delirant reges, plectuntur Achiui.
Seditione,
dolis, scelere atque libidine et ira [15]
Iliacos
intra muros peccatur et extra.
Rursus, quid
uirtus et quid sapientia possit,
utile
proposuit nobis exemplar Vlixen,
qui domitor
Troiae multorum prouidus urbes,
et mores
hominum inspexit, latumque per aequor, [20]
dum sibi,
dum sociis reditum parat, aspera multa
pertulit,
aduersis rerum inmersabilis undis.
Sirenum
uoces et Circae pocula nosti;
quae si cum
sociis stultus cupidusque bibisset,
sub domina
meretrice fuisset turpis et excors, [25]
uixisset
canis inmundus uel amica luto sus.
Nos numerus
sumus et fruges consumere nati,
sponsi
Penelopae nebulones Alcinoique
in cute
curanda plus aequo operata iuuentus,
cui pulchrum
fuit in medios dormire dies et [30]
ad strepitum
citharae cessatum ducere curam.
Vt iugulent
hominem surgunt de nocte latrones;
ut te ipsum
serues, non expergisceris? Atqui
si noles
sanus, curres hydropicus; et ni
posces ante
diem librum cum lumine, si non [35]
intendes
animum studiis et rebus honestis,
inuidia uel
amore uigil torquebere. Nam cur,
quae laedunt
oculum, festinas demere, siquid
est animum,
differs curandi tempus in annum?
Dimidium
facti, qui coepit, habet; sapere aude, [40]
incipe.
Viuendi qui recte prorogat horam,
rusticus
expectat dum defluat amnis; at ille
labitur et
labetur in omne uolubilis aeuum.
Quaeritur
argentum puerisque beata creandis
uxor, et
incultae pacantur uomere siluae; [45]
quod satis
est cui contingit, nil amplius optet.
Non domus et
fundus, non aeris aceruus et auri
aegroto
domini deduxit corpore febris,
non animo
curas; ualeat possessor oportet,
si
comportatis rebus bene cogitat uti. [50]
Qui cupit
aut metuit, iuuat illum sic domus et res
ut lippum
pictae tabulae, fomenta podagram,
auriculas
citharae collecta sorde dolentis.
Sincerum est
nisi uas, quodcumque infundis acescit.
Sperne
uoluptates; nocet empta dolore uoluptas. [55]
Semper
auarus eget; certum uoto pete finem.
Inuidus
alterius macrescit rebus opimis;
inuidia
Siculi non inuenere tyranni
maius
tormentum. Qui non moderabitur irae,
infectum
uolet esse, dolor quod suaserit et mens, [60]
dum poenas
odio per uim festinat inulto.
Ira furor
breuis est; animum rege, qui nisi paret,
imperat,
hunc frenis, hunc tu compesce catena.
Fingit equum
tenera docilem ceruice magister
ire uiam qua
monstret eques; uenaticus, ex quo [65]
tempore
ceruinam pellem latrauit in aula,
militat in
siluis catulus. Nunc adbibe puro
pectore
uerba puer, nunc te melioribus offer;
quo semel
est imbuta recens, seruabit odorem
testa diu.
Quodsi cessas aut strenuus anteis, [70]
nec tardum
opperior nec praecedentibus insto.
